Securing The Internet Of The Body

via Purdue University Professor Shreyas Sen (Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and his students Debayan Das, Shovan Maity and Baibhab Chatterjee) comes a definative answer to securing the various machines and other connected implants we as a species are placing into and on our bodies to assist and record. Their work - entitled 'Enabling Covert Body Area Network using Electro-Quasistatic Human Body Communication' appears in Scientific Reports (a NatureResearch journal) (a portion of the Abstract of the journal entry appears below).

"Radiative communication using electro-magnetic (EM) fields amongst the wearable and implantable devices act as the backbone for information exchange around a human body, thereby enabling prime applications in the fields of connected healthcare, electroceuticals, neuroscience, augmented and virtual reality. However, owing to such radiative nature of the traditional wireless communication, EM signals propagate in all directions, inadvertently allowing an eavesdropper to intercept the information." - via the Nature ScientificResearch Journal publication entitled Enabling Covert Body Area Network using Electro-Quasistatic Human Body Communication'- via Purdue University Professor Shreyas Sen (Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and his students Debayan Das, Shovan Maity and Baibhab Chatterjee)

University of Washington Develops Cellphone Sonar App To Detect Opioid Overdose

via Sarah McQuate, writing at the University of Washington's UW News, comes a story that may change the downward spiral of opiate addicts for the better...

"Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a cellphone app, called Second Chance, that uses sonar to monitor someone’s breathing rate and sense when an opioid overdose has occurred." - via Sarah McQuate, writing at the University of Washington's UW News

The Noggin Tales: Flaws of EEG →

News, via Sean Gallagher - writing at Ars Technica, details at least five critical flaws in a multi-vender software package shipped under the moniker 'Natus Xltek NeuroWorks 8'. Give’s one pause, before hooking up to the machines at your local body shop, eh?

"While attacking an EEG system won't necessarily harm a patient directly, the vulnerabilities described by Talos could be used to create a persistent presence on hospital networks for a number of malicious purposes, or to execute code that could install malware if the Internet is reachable from the system." via Sean Gallagher writing at Ars Technica

BGU Security Researchers Urge Physicians to Patch Their Systems →

via Zaid Shoorbajee - reporting for Cyberscoop, comes a story of security entropy, this time in medical imaging device system patching and an esteemed University's research targeting those systems. In this case, a research paper from Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Malware-Lab yielded good (but not-necessarily-acted-upon-advice) to Medical Professionals: Patch Your Flawed Imaging Systems...

'“In cases where even a small delay can be fatal, or where a dangerous tumor is removed or erroneously added to an image, a cyberattack can be fatal,” said Tom Mahler, an author on the paper. “However, strict regulations make it difficult to conduct basic updates on medical PCs, and merely installing anti-virus protection is insufficient for preventing cyber-attacks.” ' - Zaid Shoorbajee - reporting for Cyberscoop