CNN includes a discussion of Yoshi Kohno’s research on the privacy and security of implantable pacemaker/defibrillators in an article about former Vice President Dick Cheney’s recent interview with CNN’s Sanjay Gupta, in which Cheney revealed that when he needed his implanted defibrillator replaced in 2007, his cardiologist ordered the manufacturer to disable the wireless feature, thus preventing anyone from hacking the device.
Kohno and his collaborators began working on just this topic in 2006. The TV show Homeland – referenced in the CNN article – got the idea of compromising medical devices from the New York Times article that first reported Kohno’s work.