How hacking medical devices can cause chaos?

Update: You can download a machine learning model to diagnose COVID-19 at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lq_yx_PSX5FU476cb0sp2olQhzSbfSqG/view?usp=sharing

Only for academic purposes until further notice.

The term “hacking” brings in plenty of fright and perplexity to our minds. Hacking bank accounts, phones and other devices is a common happening in the day. However, the implications of hacking a medical device might even cost a life. Let’s find out how!

With the expedited growth in technology, it’s trace is parallelly followed by the rise in the number of hackers. All sectors adopt these new fads of the tech-world quite instantly whereas the healthcare systems often take much longer. Hospitals usually tend to follow their rudimentary way of functioning. Hacking credit cards and bank accounts cause severe financial agon. Imagine the toll it would take when medical devices are involved. Several lives could be at stake.

This had been fictionalized in a TV show,​Homeland, where a character named Brody leaks the serial number of the Vice President’s pacemaker. This serial number is then used to hack the pacemaker of the Vice President, increase his heart rate and put an end to him. Although this plot is fictional, it describes the possibilities of threats that can be posed in the real world, by hacking medical devices.

Medical device hacking is not restricted only to implants. Widely used devices such as an anesthesia monitor or even an MRI equipment can be hacked for that matter. If hacking were to advance in the current pace, there would come a time where every usual standard procedure might appear to pose a threat.

If cybersecurity is not strengthened in the healthcare industry, devices designed to save lives might instead end up taking many causing immense chaos. Getting a small procedure done? ​You might have to be extremely cautious a few years down the line, as opposed to right now. Taking your daily shot of insulin? You might have to worry about getting overdosed out of your control. Privacy will be breached. Safety will be compromised.