Sabíamos que jovens universitários conseguiam atacar sites de instituições poderosas, como o FBI, o Departamento de Defesa dos EUA ou os bancos. Não sabíamos que os "hackers" (os tais jovens, de que falávamos), conseguiam se quiserem interferir nos equipamentos médicos. Vejamos esta notícia, que pode vir a ser preocupante:
- Warning: Not only computers are vulnerable to hack attacks. Our bodies may be, as well.
- "With some technical expertise, we were able to retrieve information from the device in an unauthorized fashion," said Dr. William H. Maisel, senior author of the report. "We were able to send commands to the device in an unauthorized fashion and could reprogram settings and even tell the device to deliver a high-voltage shock.".
- But Maisel, director of the Medical Device Safety Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess, emphasized that the millions of patients with implanted cardiac devices, such as pacemakers and cardiac defibrillators, should not be concerne.
- "It's important to know that there has never ever been a single reported episode of this type of malicious attack on a defibrillator," he said. Because of the technical skill needed for an attack, the danger is ex tremely remote, he added.
- "Patients are much better off having the defibrillator than not," Maisel said. "If I were getting an implantable defibrillator today, I would ask for one that had wireless capability."
Bem, de facto temos que viver com alguns perigos. Tal como na informática, os doentes que têm "pacemakers" vão passar a viver com riscos adicionais. Até agora, parece que ninguém se queixou. E a Universidade de Massachussets deixa-nos mais esta pista, que não deixa de ser preocupante. Mas, antes sabermos que existe risco, do que pensarmos que ele não existe.
