Some Medtron­ic in­sulin pumps are vul­ner­a­ble to hack­ers, FDA warns

One of the fea­tures Medtron­ic touts in its Min­iMed 600 se­ries in­sulin pumps is a se­ries of com­po­nents that con­nect wire­less­ly to al­low the re­mote de­liv­ery of in­sulin. On Tues­day, reg­u­la­tors warned that the tech­nol­o­gy al­so leaves the door open to po­ten­tial hack­ers.

The FDA is­sued an alert that unau­tho­rized users could gain con­trol of the pumps in cer­tain cir­cum­stances, re­sult­ing in ei­ther too much or too lit­tle in­sulin be­ing ad­min­is­tered. While too much in­sulin leads to low blood sug­ar — which in se­vere cas­es can cause seizure, co­ma or death — too lit­tle may lead to di­a­bet­ic ke­toaci­do­sis, a life-threat­en­ing con­di­tion where the body starts break­ing down fat too fast.

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