Connected medical devices: The Internet of things-that-could-kill-you

Cybersecurity researchers have warned that hackers can hijack cars and even rifles. Now, federal regulators are warning that a pump used to deliver medicine to patients is at risk of being breached. While computers can make medical devices more accurate, they are also vulnerable to the same sort of coding bugs that end up in other software. A nefarious hacker who makes his way into a pacemaker or insulin pump could potentially do a lot more damage than one who makes it into your laptop or smartphone.

The government has warned about the hacking risks of connected medical devices for years. And on July 31, US regulators said that one pump used to deliver medicine to patients, the Symbiq Infusion System from medical device-maker Hospira, can be hacked by someone who gains access to a hospital's computer network. "This could allow an unauthorized user to control the device and change the dosage the pump delivers, which could lead to over- or under-infusion of critical patient therapies," the Food and Drug Administration said in guidance posted online. That's a potentially fatal flaw, experts said. "There's no question that these vulnerabilities can be used to kill someone -- we wrote an exploit that would do just that and gave the research to the Department of Homeland Security and the FDA," said Billy Rios, a former Google software engineer who now works as a security consultant and is credited by the Department of Homeland Security with finding issues with some of Hospira's pumps.