How hackers can hijack DRUG PUMPS to kill hospital patients: Security expert reveals how criminals can control equipment from their laptop to com

[link to www.dailymail.co.uk]


A HOSPITAL drug pump manufactured by a firm that supplies equipment to the NHS can be hacked by criminals to inflict lethal doses of medicines on patients.

In a chilling demonstration, The Mail on Sunday watched a security expert hack into an infusion pump using his laptop. He was able to control the pump and administer a potentially lethal dose – and warned that hackers or terrorists could do the same to target patients and commit ‘the perfect murder’.

In a meeting at a hotel room during the Black Hat cyber-security conference in Las Vegas, cyber safety expert Billy Rios, founder of Whitescope security, hacked the Symbiq infusion pump made by Hospira.

The pumps are used to give doses of drugs for chemotherapy, as well as fluids and nutrients.

Mr Rios said: ‘These devices are going to be used in the future to hurt people. I have no doubt in my mind that that’s going to happen, if it hasn’t happened already.’

Asked whether it was wise for hospitals in the UK to continue to use the affected Hospira pumps, he said: ‘It’s a huge risk.’