Pacemakers and Implantable Cardiac Defibrillators: Software Radio Attacks and Zero-Power Defenses

Abstract

Abstract-Our study analyzes the security and privacy properties of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). Introduced to the U.S. market in 2003, this model of ICD includes pacemaker technology and is designed to communicate wirelessly with a nearby external programmer in the 175 kHz frequency range. After partially reverse-engineering the ICD's communications protocol with an oscilloscope and a software radio, we implemented several software radio-based attacks that could compromise patient safety and patient privacy. Motivated by our desire to improve patient safety, and mindful of conventional trade-offs between security and power consumption for resourceconstrained devices, we introduce three new zero-power defenses based on RF power harvesting. Two of these defenses are humancentric, bringing patients into the loop with respect to the security and privacy of their implantable medical devices (IMDs). Our contributions provide a scientific baseline for understanding the potential security and privacy risks of current and future IMDs, and introduce human-perceptible and zero-power mitigation techniques that address those risks. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first in our community to use general-purpose software radios to analyze and attack previously unknown radio communications protocols.

A Review of Cyber Threats and Defence Approaches in Emergency Management

“…As several researchers have observed [87,124,125], a cyber attack can be used to assist terrorist activities by softening a target before a physical attack or by generating fear and confusion. Yet, the majority of research for the security of EM systems has focussed on preventive approaches that assume that an authentication framework based on encryption of communications and access control will always be successful, and are not complemented by reactive response mechanisms (Table 5).…”

Healthcare in the Smart Home: A Study of Past, Present and Future

“…Security applies across the board with medical equipment but is particularly important in implantable devices due to the importance and control they have over their wearer. Much has been written in the press about compromised medical devices [58,59] so one area of future focus will be in securing these types of devices.…”

Enseignement de la sécurité numérique : De la sensibilisation à l'expertise

“…Frigos, voitures, jouets ou dispositifs médicaux connectés…, les exemples d'objets ayant des failles ne cessent d'augmenter [2]- [4].…”