thoughts/post/2012-10-18-another-crack-at...

# Another crack at medical device cracking

My previous post mentioned the dangers of running non-free software on implanted
medical devices. While reading over RMS' policital notes[0], I came across [an
article mentioning how viruses are rampant on medical equipment][1].

> "It's not unusual for those devices, for reasons we don't fully understand, to
> become compromised to the point where they can't record and track the data,"
> Olson said during the meeting, referring to high-risk pregnancy monitors.

The devices often run old, unpatches versions of Microsoft's Windoze operating
system. The article also mentions how the maleware often attempts to include its
host as part of a botnet.

[0]: http://stallman.org/archives/2012-jul-oct.html#18_October_2012_%28Computerized_medical_devices_vulnerable_to_viruses%29
[1]: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/429616/computer-viruses-are-rampant-on-medical-devices/

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This is deeply concerning and incredibly dangerous. As non-free software is used
more and more in equipement that is responsible for our health and safety, we
are at increased risk for not only obvious software flaws, but also for crackers
with malicious intent; harming someone will become as easy as instructing your
botnet to locate and assassinate an individual while you go enjoy a warm (or
cold) beverage.

These problems are *less likely* (not impossible) to occur in free software
beacuse the users and community are able to inspect the source code and fix
problems that arise (or hire someone that can)[2]. In particular, in the case of
the hospitals mentioned in [the article][1], they would be free to hire someone
to fix the problems themselves rather than falling at the mercy of the
corporations who supplied the proprietary software.

[2]: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
Convert posts to markdown files This was considerable effort, and took a bit more time than I had hoped. While newer posts were written with Markdown, previous ones were writen with my own Markdown-like formatting, but they had enough differences that it was quite an effort to get things updated. I also checked the HTML output of each, though I didn't read every article in detail. Some of these were more substantial than others; National Uproar, for example. These conversions were markup translations: the actual text remains unchanged, except in one minor instance to add text for the sake of providing some text to hold a link to a quote. Any changes to post text will happen in future commits so that the diffs are clearly visible. 2018-12-17 23:31:08 -05:00			`# Another crack at medical device cracking`

			`My previous post mentioned the dangers of running non-free software on implanted`
			`medical devices. While reading over RMS' policital notes[0], I came across [an`
			`article mentioning how viruses are rampant on medical equipment][1].`

			`> "It's not unusual for those devices, for reasons we don't fully understand, to`
			`> become compromised to the point where they can't record and track the data,"`
			`> Olson said during the meeting, referring to high-risk pregnancy monitors.`

			`The devices often run old, unpatches versions of Microsoft's Windoze operating`
			`system. The article also mentions how the maleware often attempts to include its`
			`host as part of a botnet.`

			`[0]: http://stallman.org/archives/2012-jul-oct.html#18_October_2012_%28Computerized_medical_devices_vulnerable_to_viruses%29`
			`[1]: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/429616/computer-viruses-are-rampant-on-medical-devices/`

			`<!-- more -->`

			`This is deeply concerning and incredibly dangerous. As non-free software is used`
			`more and more in equipement that is responsible for our health and safety, we`
			`are at increased risk for not only obvious software flaws, but also for crackers`
			`with malicious intent; harming someone will become as easy as instructing your`
			`botnet to locate and assassinate an individual while you go enjoy a warm (or`
			`cold) beverage.`

			`These problems are less likely (not impossible) to occur in free software`
			`beacuse the users and community are able to inspect the source code and fix`
			`problems that arise (or hire someone that can)[2]. In particular, in the case of`
			`the hospitals mentioned in [the article][1], they would be free to hire someone`
			`to fix the problems themselves rather than falling at the mercy of the`
			`corporations who supplied the proprietary software.`

			`[2]: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html`