CNN: Scientists Work to Keep Hackers Out of Implanted Medical Devices

This week UW security researcher Tamara Denning presented her study of patients, pacemakers, and security defenses at CHI 2010. A CNN reporter was in the audience and decided to write an article about her work. Tammy used semi-structured interviews with cardiac device patients to provide a scientifically-informed understanding of how different security solutions for wireless implantable medical devices interact with patients’ values. This work was in collaboration with Seattle Pacific University and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The CNN article also features UW’s 2008 experimental security analysis of an implantable cardiac defibrillator (in collaboration with UMass and BIDMC) and discusses the points made in a recent New England Journal of Medicine perspective article (also in collaboration with BIDMC).