28/10/2011

International medical device manufacturer, Medtronic, has tasked a team of cyber security experts to examine the vulnerability of their insulin pumps to hacking and whether dose levels could be altered remotely.

The company is taking every measure to find out how secure their medical equipment is, after claims surfaced in August that at least one of its devices could be hacked, and could potentially see fatal insulin level administered.

The company is working with security software manufacturer, McAfee, full examine their device's weaknesses. The device that was allegedly hacked into was one of the company's Medtronic Paradigm insulin pumps, but the company will not reveal which exact model was involved.

Catherine Szyman, president of Medtronic's diabetes division, said, "This is an evolution from having to think about security and safety as a healthcare company, and really about keeping people safe on our therapy, to this different question about keeping people safe around criminal or malicious intent."

Ms Szyman, whose nephew uses a Medtronic insulin pump, said they had been working with McAfee after the news of the vulnerability from an independent researcher came to light in August. McAfee's technicians have since managed to develop code that can gain complete control of one of the brand's pumps from as far away as 300 feet.

The development of the problem with the insulin pump, could see a lot more device companies and their clients investing in medical security software, which could likely boost both development and sales jobs in the field.