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Guest Post by Paul Kostek (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

I usually write about risk as related to projects, but several of the comments I received on my article on “Can Your Pacemaker be Hacked” made me realize that we are all faced with risk management in our personal lives.

Continuing on the medical topic, think about how many options you’re faced with when your doctor recommends a procedure, whether adding a pacemaker, replacing a joint or a prescription drug.  

Hopefully you have a doctor that you trust and knows you, but how would you respond to the doctor recommending a procedure?  If we use a risk process then we’d have to consider the possibility of the identified risk occurring, the impact on our life(style), the benefits of mitigating the risk.

To support our decision we could get a second opinion, do on-line research or check with family/friends that have had the same procedure.  Then just like a manager assigning a risk we’d have to review the data we collected and make a decision.  The advent of Electronic Medical Records should make life easier, but also lead to more challenges for managing/securing data. [Read more…]

Guest Post by Paul Kostek (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Hack a pacemaker?  Is this a real problem?

Some recent experiments have been able to hack a pacemaker and other medical devices including an insulin pump.  The weakness of these systems was the analog sensors attached to the body to gather information. These analog inputs bypass the internal security and are converted directly to digital signals. 

From a risk perspective is this something medical device manufacturers , insurance companies and the medical professionals need to worry about? It was part of a conversation at the Black Hat @Design West Conference where considerable discussion was held on building defensive walls. [Read more…]