St Judes Home Monitoring Receives Security Update

The vulnerabilities in devices such as pacemakers and defibrillators allow attackers to modify the programming of a device, tampering with heart pacing or shocks and resulting in battery depletion. The communication protocols for the transmitters lack encryption and authentication mechanisms which allows them to be easily compromised. If a patient became the target of a cyber attack they would require immediate medical attention.

From the findings patches have been deployed to address additional validation and verification between the Merlin@home and Merlin.net Patient Care Network, with further updates to follow throughout 2017.