
465k patients told to visit doctor to patch critical pacemaker vulnerability - artsandsci
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/08/465k-patients-need-a-firmware-update-to-prevent-serious-pacemaker-hacks/
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nullpage
"The critical firmware flaws came to light last year in an advisory that was
sponsored by an investment that was betting against the stock of St. Jude,
which was formally acquired by Abbott Laboratories in January. In the two days
following the disclosure by investment firm Muddy Waters, St. Jude's stock
price fell 12 percent. At the time, St. Jude issued a statement saying the
Muddy Waters report was "false and misleading.""

This reminds me of the plot of Casino Royal where the villains short the stock
of an airline / airplane manufacturer, then attempt to blow up the plane they
are showing off to force the stock to sink. That is some questionable ethics,
then again the investment firm is called "Muddy Waters" haha.

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gozur88
If the report is really "false and misleading" it's probably illegal. But I'm
not sure why Abbott would be doing a recall if that were the case.

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ringaroundthetx
Hello, this is Margin calling, might want to do that recall anywho sleep well!

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habosa
I am blown away by the fact that in a country of 300M people (~230M adults)
there are 0.5M people with the same model of pacemaker!

I would have guessed the total number needing a pacemaker at all would be less
than this rate (1/500).

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bb611
It's a big and very active business.

In 2009 alone, doctors implanted ~225,000 pacemakers in the US:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21707667](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21707667)

Germany had the highest reported rate of new implants for any country in the
study, at almost 1/1000 just in 2009. In the US that would be 300,000 per year
just in new devices, and based on the study's aggregate reporting we could
guess another 1/3 for replacement devices - 400,000 new devices per year as a
high guess.

There's probably better info in the article but I don't have journal access
and don't want to spend $6 to get it for this article.

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burntrelish1273
Dupe of
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15132887](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15132887)

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honestoHeminway
Hi, your pacemaker has been encrypted. It will continue to set your heartrate
to this message in morse-code- unless you transfer 3 Bitcoins to the following
wallet:

For more precise instructions on how to transfer Bitcoin, visit your local ER.

