Preview: Insulin Pump Sweet Target for Hacks

Former IBM Corp. senior threat intelligence analyst Jay Radcliffe hacked into his own insulin pump and managed to manipulate the amount of insulin delivered to his body at potentially fatal levels. In 2011, he presented his findings at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas but did not identify the manufacturer of the insulin pump. Later, he revealed the company to be medical device manufacturer Medtronic, identifying four of the Dublin-based company’s insulin pumps vulnerable to cyberattacks. If Radcliffe had executed a true cyberattack that killed or extorted patients, San Fernando Valley companies would have been at risk. The MiniMed insulin pump he hacked was partially developed by the Alfred Mann Foundation in Valencia and was later sold to Medtronic, which has its diabetes division in Northridge. Read the full story in the March 21 issue of the San Fernando Valley Business Journal.