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What does 'fix deployed' mean? How do you actually update pacemaker software? Are you going to wait for 100% of the deployed pacemakers are fixed? What is an ac

• rmcpherson 12y ago
  Pacemaker firmware can almost always be updated using inductive or rf telemetry. In most cases it still requires an appointment with a cardiologist or similar physician though.
  • kijin 12y ago
    Anyone who uses a pacemaker will need to have it checked at least a couple of times a year anyway.
  • niels_olson 12y ago
    And many can now be monitored by the cardiologist from their office as the device uploads data to a server, or can even be reached directly from the physician's console. And both cardiologists and pacemaker companies generally have a pretty good bead on who's walking around with which serial numbered device.
• zymhan 12y ago
  If a large enough majority of people get their pacemakers fixed, it greatly lowers the chances that you'll encounter someone with a defective pacemaker that you can exploit.
• duaneb 12y ago
  I think you should assume people will reverse engineer patches as soon as they are public. People should treat this like any urgent medical care and address it within hours or days of the patch being available. I don't know much about that area of the industry, but I don't envy it at all. Imagining being the person responsible for a) enabling remote communication, b) allowing updates via remote communication, and c) securing it. What a nightmare situation.