~Miscellany Stuff~

By Mike Wehner, Tecca | Today in Tech – Mon, 15 Aug, 2011

Hackers aren't just targeting computers and cell phones anymore

Hackers are making headlines these days like never before. From video game systems to voicemail accounts, it seems like almost every type of electronic device or information storage medium can be hacked to either give up information or perform actions it wasn't initially designed to do. We've gathered a handful of the weirdest hacks out there, and the vulnerability of some of your everyday devices might surprise you.

Pacemakers are surprisingly vulnerable

1. Medical implants

High-tech medical devices like pacemakers and insulin pumps can save lives, but hackers can actually utilize their built-in wireless features for less helpful purposes. Researchers have demonstrated that certain pacemakers that use a wireless signal for easy tweaking are vulnerable to anyone with the correct reprogramming hardware. Doctors use these wireless programming devices to make subtle adjustments to the heart helpers without the need for further surgeries. Unfortunately, the signal they use is unencrypted, meaning that anyone who finds a way to obtain such a device could literally manipulate the heart of a patient, causing cardiac arrest, or even death.

Insulin pumps are apparently even more susceptible to outside interference, and at the recent Black Hat hacker conference in Las Vegas, the life-saving pumps were shown to be vulnerable