Medical hackers?

 It is not a safe world anymore. Along with the big trend of more and more activities conducted online, criminals can make all kinds of malicious attacks. It is not news anymore if your financial accounts or email have been hacked. But I bet you would probably have never thought about a cyber attack to medical devices!  Johnson & Johnson has just told patients that they have identified a security vulnerability in one of its insulin pumps that a hacker could use to overdose diabetic patients with insulin. If you are not sure what it means, then in layman’s language it is that  too much insulin (overdose) could cause low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), which in extreme cases could kill patients. In August, there was a report saying that heart devices from St. Jude Medical Inc had potentially life-threatening cyber vulnerabilities and St. Jude’s prices tumbled due to the news. 

 

You may not think this is anything to do with you but potentially it could in the future. Think about a scenario. If someone has a relative (important to him/her) who relies on a diabetic pump or a heart device or other device that is critical, instead of kidnapping, a hacker could use an cyber attack to control the device and then ask for money or kill. Sounds like a fiction but I won’t be surprised to see this happen in the near future.

 

From the investment perspective, buying some cyber security stocks will be a great idea and moving forward, this sector will only become more and more demanded and red hot. If you don’t know which companies to buy, then simply buy the ETF for security stocks via HACK. See some details here.