Former US Vice President Dick Cheney has revealed that his pacemaker’s wireless functionality was disabled during his tenure. A decision in anticipation of a hack.
Dick Cheney wore a pacemaker whose wireless function was disabled during his tenure as Vice President of the United States. He reveals in the program “60 Minutes” of the CBS channel that this decision was taken to anticipate any remote attack against his person.
A vice president in danger
This is not a paranoia, as Dick Cheney cardiologist Jonathan Reiner explains: “It seemed to me that it was not a good idea for the Vice President of the United States to be equipped with ‘a device that someone, from the adjoining hotel room or from the stairs, can hack into. It would be possible, from a distance, to cause an electric shock via the pacemaker and trigger a heart attack.
Watch Dick Cheney’s interview on CBS:
The attack of the cardiac defibrillator, this catastrophic scenario was worked out with the security services of Cheney at a tense time: the “war on terrorism” of President George W. Bush. At that time, the American vice-president was a prime target for terrorists. Because of his heart problems, he is also a fragile target. At 72, the man suffered five heart attacks and quadruple coronary bypass surgery.
More and more hacking scenarios
Dick Cheney’s cardiologist is not the only one to have imagined a pacemaker hack. On September 24, Rice University (Texas, United States) is developing “Heart to Heart” technology to protect implantable medical devices. Starting from the principle that a cardiac defibrillator is not protected, they developed a unique and non-hackable password: the imprint of the beating of the heart.
For once, we can say that reality does not go beyond fiction. We can even assume that the series Homeland borrowed this scene from real life. We see a vice-president suffering a heart attack triggered by the hacking of his pacemaker. Dick Cheney found this excerpt “credible.” “
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