Pacemakers and insulin pumps vulnerable to hacking-HPRA

Health Products Regulatory Authority said pacemakers running on Bluetooth Low Energy were at risk.

The Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) has warned the public about the hacking threat to medical devices.

Devices running on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocol are vulnerable to hacking according to the HPRA.

Insulin pumps and pacemakers were two devices highlighted as possible targets. Hackers can force the devices to crash or reboot and threaten their users' health.

Physical proximity to target devices is necessary to bypass security features.

The HPRA said the exploit codes are available but they do not know how widely.

The group has asked health professionals to work with manufacturers to identify at-risk devices.