In a recent interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes, former Vice President Dick Cheney said he was so concerned that terrorists could use the electrical device that had been implanted near his heart to kill him that he had his doctor disable its wireless function.
Cheney has a history of heart trouble, suffering the first of five heart attacks at the age of 37, reports the Associated Press. He received an implanted defibrillator, a device that can detect irregular heatbeats and control them with electric shocks, in 2007. He and his doctor, cardiologist Jonathan Reiner, made the decision to deactivate the device’s wireless function to prevent remote tampering.
“It seemed like a bad idea for the vice president of the United States to have a device that maybe [someone] on a rope line, or [someone] in the next hotel room or downstairs might be able to get into—hack into—and I worried that someone would kill you,” Reiner told 60 Minutes.
A recent episode of the Showtime series Homeland, in which such a scenario was part of the plot, echoed these concerns, said Cheney.
“I found it credible,” Cheney told 60 Minutes. “I knew from the experience we had, and the necessity for adjusting my own device, that it was an accurate portrayal of what was possible.”
The revelation highlights ongoing concerns regarding the vulnerability of implanted medical devices, which are equipped with wireless capabilities that allow doctors to access the devices without the need for additional surgery. Recent research has suggested that the analog sensors within cardiac devices are vulnerable to deliberate EMI signal injection attacks.
Cheney underwent a heart transplant last year at the age of 71.
