Ambulance Drone

Feds examining medical devices for fatal cybersecurity flaws

10-24-2014 National:

They could be controlled remotely, overdose patients, or thwart heart implants.

It was an eerie tale. Former US Vice President Dick Cheney announced last year that he disabled the wireless function of the implanted heart defibrillator amid fears it could be exploited by terrorists wanting to kill him.

Cheney's announcement put a face to the fear of possible medical-device hacking exploits, and researchers and the federal government were slowly realizing there were genuine vulnerabilities associated with these implanted devices. They are equipped with computerized functions and wireless capabilities that allow the devices to be administered without requiring additional surgery, and therefore they could be vulnerable to hacker exploit.

Cheney's move may have seemed far-fetched, but his paranoia is being confirmed, as the Department of Homeland Security is now probing potential cybersecurity flaws in certain medical devices.

"The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Industrial Control Systems-Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT) works directly with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and medical devices manufacturers, health care professionals, and facilities to investigate and address cyber vulnerabilities. DHS actively collaborates with public and private sector partners every day to identify and reduce adverse impacts on the nation’s critical cyber systems," DHS spokesman S.Y. Lee wrote Thursday to Ars.

Some Curbs on Sex Offenders Called Ineffective, Inhumane

11-22-2006 Georgia:

As convicted sex offenders go, they seem to pose little danger.

One is 100 years old. Another can barely walk and is in the late stages of Alzheimer's disease. Another is dying of heart disease in a nursing home.

Yet under a new Georgia law, thousands of registered sex offenders, even the old and feeble, could be pushed from their homes and hospices.

"He doesn't really know anything about it," said Ruby Anderson, 77, whose husband was convicted of having sex with a minor in 1997 and, at 81, no longer recognizes members of his family because of Alzheimer's disease. "The trouble is, I just don't know where we can go."

As states around the country have sought in recent years to control the whereabouts of convicted sex offenders, Georgia's law stands out as one of the toughest, a testament to the daunting public fears regarding children's safety.

Lubbock, Texas, unveiling statue of man who wouldn't take 'freedom on the cheap'

9-17-2014 Texas:

Even while imprisoned for a rape he didn't commit, Tim Cole never stopped acting like a big brother.

"He would send us letters, telling us what classes to take, telling us to look out for a subscription to Money magazine he was sending us," brother Cory Session remembers.

Cole was a student at Texas Tech when he was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison for the 1985 rape of 20-year-old Michele Mallin.

In 2009, DNA would exonerate Cole, but not until a decade after he died in prison, at age 39, from heart complications related to his asthma.

To those who loved him, Texas can never right the false conviction, but the Lubbock City Council wants to make sure Cole and his case are not forgotten. The city unveiled a statue of the Fort Worth native across the street from the Texas Tech campus on Wednesday afternoon and dedicated the area where the bronze likeness will stand as the Tim Cole Memorial Park.

Behind bars, Cole refused to lose faith, telling his sister Karen Kennard -- the only African-American enrolled at Texas Tech's law school at the time -- not to give up pursuing her law degree.

"I still believe in the justice system, even if the justice system doesn't believe in me," he once wrote in a letter.

Kennard finished her degree and went on to become the city attorney for Austin, Texas.

His brotherly attitude extended beyond his kin as well. His family wouldn't learn about it until later, but Cole used the money he earned from his GI Bill to make thousands of dollars in charitable donations from behind bars.