Fears criminals may cyber hack pacemakers

CYBER attackers could kill patients by hacking their pacemakers or heart pumps, the Royal Academy of Engineering has warned.

In a report, security experts said health tech was vulnerable to cyber attacks that could have “severe consequences” for patients.

The Royal Academy said the number of devices that were susceptible to hacking

‘There is genuine harm that can be done through poor cyber security’

was growing, posing a threat to individuals and providing a way to gain access to entire networks.

The experts warned that pacemakers or wearable health monitors that were linked up to the internet or internal computer networks could also provide a gateway for hackers to plant ransomware into systems, potentially crippling the NHS or government departments.

Some US hospitals have been infected by the Wannacry and Medjack computer viruses after hackers targeted medical devices that were not protected.

Prof Nick Jennings, a fellow of the Royal Academy and the vice provost at Imperial College London, said: “There is genuine harm that can be done through poor cyber security on medical devices, on future-connected homes, on autonomous vehicles, and if they are not dealt with then that will lead to harm and deaths.

“Medical devices can also be used as a gateway into other parts of the network, so if a device is not well protected, it’s easy to go through one device to another.

“We cannot totally avoid failures or attacks, but we can design systems that are highly resilient and will recover quickly.”

The report calls for new regulation to make sure that devices connected to the internet are not vulnerable to hacking. It points out that many were designed before the threat was realised.

The team also warned householders to be more careful about giving out their Wi-fi passwords to friends or neighbours.

Prof Jennings said: “It is worrying that there is a low level of data literacy. We should be teaching it from primary school.”