* Posts by Robin Phillips

2 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Oct 2011

Insulin pump hack delivers fatal dosage over the air

Robin Phillips

Not concerned

OK, so my insulin pump happens to not be wireless. But even if it was it's not really something to be worried about. It's not an attack that could be targeted at you specifically, and unless they are just going to go and sit in a crowded space and see who he can make drop to the floor from an insulin overdose. They have no way of knowing that I am diabetic from 300ft away, or even 2ft away unless I tell him I'm wearing an insulin pump. And if someone is sat in front of me with a laptop and fancy antenna and starts asking about what kind of insulin pump I'm using... I'll just walk away and the problem is solved.

A large dose of insulin is dangerous, but it's far less dangerous to an insulin dependant diabetic than it is to a "regular" person. I'll certainly feel it if my pump suddenly starts trying to send 300 units into me (the max my pump ever has in it is about 180u), then just unplug the canula and start downing bottles of Lucozade. Not a fun result, but not fatal.

Robin Phillips

Nope. Hypoglycaemia is low sugar, hyperglycaemia is high sugar.