Source: Sky News
Diabetic patients warned of fatal hacking risk in insulin pumps.
This is a report based on evidence from a security researcher that insulin pumps can be hacked from a distance of up to 25 feet. This only goes for the Johnson and Johnson's Animas OneTouch insulin pump so there is not to much to worry about, but if these pumps are hacked they can change the dosage of insulin. If a patient has to much insulin it can lead to hypoglycemia or low blood sugar which can be life threatening.
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| The Animas OneTouch insulin pump. |
The pump comes with a remote control that is used to control the insulin you get and when you get it. When hacked the dosage of insulin can be adjusted without the owner knowing. I would like to think there would not be someone out there evil enough to do something like this, but these days nothing surprises me.
Johnson and Johnson's have released a statement telling people that own this product to discontinue use of the remote control and set the pump so there is a maximum amount of insulin that goes in.
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| Insulin pump without remote control |
I chose this story because I think it proves that despite how far technology has come it can still have problems and in this case the problem is potentially deadly. To be honest I don't think any piece of technology that can control the amount of medication you are taking should be trusted, I still don't trust technology to do jobs better than humans can.
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