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Law, Innovation and Technology Volume 5, 2013 - Issue 2
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Original Articles

Attacking Human Implants: A New Generation of Cybercrime

Mark N Gasson Mark N Gasson is Visiting Research Fellow, School of Systems Engineering, University of Reading, UK.
&
Bert-Jaap Koops Bert-Jaap Koops is Professor of Regulation and Technology, TILT—Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society, Tilburg University (The Netherlands). The research leading to this paper received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no 289092 (RoboLaw). All websites accessed 20 July 2013.
Pages 248-277 | Published online: 07 May 2015

  • KR Foster and J Jaeger, 'RFID Inside: The Murky Ethics of Implanted Chips' (2007) 44 IEEE Spectrum 24.
  • Mark Gasson, Eleni Kosta and Diana Bowman (eds), Human ICT Implants: Technical, Legal and Ethical Considerations (TMC Asser Press, 2012).
  • European Commission, Towards a General Policy on the Fight against Cyber Crime (2007), 2.
  • Donn B Parker, Crime by Computer (Scribner, 1976).
  • Convention on Cybercrime, Budapest, 23.XI.2001, CETS 185, http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/QueVoulezVous.asp?NT=185&CM=8&DF=&CL=ENG.
  • David S Wall, Cybercrime: The Transformation of Crime in the Information Age (Polity Press, 2007) 44–48.
  • Ibid, 48.
  • See, for an overview, A Juels, 'RFID Security and Privacy: A Research Survey' (2006) 24 IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications 381.
  • A Graafstra, ‘Hands On’ (2007) 44 IEEE Spectrum 18.
  • K Warwick and MN Gasson, 'A Question of Identity: Wiring in the Human', IET Wireless Sensor Networks Conference, London (2006).
  • J Halamka et al, ‘The Security Implications of VeriChip Cloning’ (2006) 13 Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association 601.
  • Graafstra (n 9).
  • http://dangerousthin.gs.
  • MN Gasson, 'Human Enhancement: Could You Become Infected with a Computer Virus?', IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society, Wollongong, Australia (2010), 61–68.
  • National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, NIDCD Factsheet Cochlear Implants, National Institutes of Health, NIH Publication No 11–4798, March 2011, www.nidcd.nih.gov/staticresources/health/hearing/FactSheetCochlearImplant.pdf.
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  • D Panescu, ‘Wireless Communication Systems for Implantable Medical Devices’ (2008) 27 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine 96.
  • WH Maisel, 'Safety Issues Involving Medical Devices: Implications of Recent Implantable Cardioverter-Defbrillator Malfunctions' (2005) 294 Journal of the American Medical Association 955.
  • H Savci et al, 'MICS Transceivers: Regulatory Standards and Applications [Medical Implant Communications Service]' in Proceedings of the IEEE SoutheastCon 2005 (IEEE Press, 2005) 179.
  • Federal Communications Commission, MICS Medical Implant Communication Services, FCC 47CFR95. 601–95.673 Subpart E/I Rules for MedRadio Services.
  • European Telecommunications Standard Institute, ETSI EN 301 839–1 V1.3.1, 2009.
  • Industry Canada, ‘Radio Standards Specification RSS-243: Medical Devices Operating in the 401–406 MHz Frequency Band' [2010] Spectrum Management and Telecommunications.
  • Lyons (n 17).
  • MN Gasson et al, 'Towards a Demand Driven Deep-Brain Stimulator for the Treatment of Movement Disorders', 3rd IEE International Seminar on Medical Applications of Signal Processing (MASP2005), London (3–4 November 2005), 83.
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  • S Micera et al, 'Decoding Information from Neural Signals Recorded using Intraneural Electrodes: Toward the Development of a Neurocontrolled Hand Prosthesis' (2010) 98 Proceedings of the IEEE 407.
  • MN Gasson et al, 'Invasive Neural Prosthesis for Neural Signal Detection and Nerve Stimulation' (2005) 19 International Journal of Adaptive Control and Signal Processing 365.
  • PM Rossini et al, 'Double Nerve Intraneural Interface Implant on a Human Amputee for Robotic Hand Control' (2010) 121 Clinical Neurophysiology 777.
  • LR Hochberg et al, 'Reach and Grasp by People with Tetraplegia Using a Neurally Controlled Robotic Arm' (2012) 485 Nature 372.
  • MA Lebedev and MAL Nicolelis, 'Brain–Machine Interfaces: Past, Present and Future' (2006) 29 Trends in Neurosciences 536; MA Lebedev et al, ‘Future Developments in Brain–Machine Interface Research’ (2011) 66 (Suppl 1) Clinics (Sao Paolo) 25.
  • PA Tresco and BD Winslow, 'The Challenge of Integrating Devices into the Central Nervous System' (2011) 39 Critical Reviews in Biomedical Engineering 29.
  • LR Hochberg et al, 'Neuronal Ensemble Control of Prosthetic Devices by a Human with Tetraplegia' (2006) 442 Nature 164.
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  • EM McGee and GQ Maguire, 'Becoming Borg to Become Immortal: Regulating Brain Implant Technologies' (2007) 16 Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 291.
  • Cf GR Cosgrove, 'Neuroscience, Brain, and Behavior V: Deep Brain Stimulation. Transcript—session 6, June 25, 2004′, The President's Council on BioEthics, www.bioethics.gov/transcripts/june04/session6.html.
  • A Pascual-Leone, D Bartres-Faz and JP Keenan, 'Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: Studying the Brain-Behaviour Relationship by Induction of “Virtual Lesions”' (1999) 354 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B—Biological Sciences 1229.
  • DA Treffert, 'The Savant Syndrome: An Extraordinary Condition. A Synopsis: Past, Present, Future' (2009) 364 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B—Biological Sciences 1351.
  • RL Young, MC Ridding and TL Morrell, 'Switching Skills On by Turning Off Part of the Brain' (2004) 10 Neurocase: The Neural Basis of Cognition 215; RP Chi and AW Snyder, ‘Brain Stimulation Enables the Solution of an Inherently Diffcult Problem' (2012) 515 Neuroscience Letters 121.
  • K Warwick et al, 'Thought Communication and Control: A First Step Using Radiotelegraphy' (2004) 151 IEE Proceedings Communications 185.
  • M Pais-Vieira et al, ‘Brain-to-Brain Interface for Real-Time Sharing of Sensorimotor Information’ (2013) 3 Scientifc Reports 1319.
  • J Doubler and D Childress, 'An Analysis of Extended Physiological Proprioception as a Prosthesis Control Technique' (1984) 21 Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development 5; DC Simpson, ‘The Choice of Control System for the Multimovement Prosthesis: Extended Physiological Proprioception (e.p.p.)' in P Herberts et al (eds), The Control of Upper-Extremity Prostheses and Orthoses: Proceedings of the Conference on the Control of Upper-Extremity Prostheses and Orthoses, Göteborg, Sweden, October 6–8, 1971 (Charles C Thomas, 1974) 146.
  • L Johansson and A Fjellman-Wiklund, ‘Ventilated Patients’ Experiences of Body Awareness at an Intensive Care Unit' (2005) 7 Advances in Physiotherapy 154.
  • M Schüpbach et al, 'Neurosurgery in Parkinson Disease: A Distressed Mind in a Repaired Body?' (2006) 66 Neurology 1811.
  • K Witt et al, ‘Deep Brain Stimulation and the Search for Identity’ [2011] Neuroethics 1.
  • Compare Bert-Jaap Koops and Merel Prinsen, 'Houses of Glass, Transparent Bodies: How New Technologies Affect Inviolability of the Home and Bodily Integrity in the Dutch Constitution' (2007) 16 Information & Communications Technology Law 177, 182–3 (Dutch law) with Angela Di Carlo, ‘Boundless Bodies: The Right to Bodily Integrity and the Freedom to Use One's Body in Light of Advances in Robotics' in Ronald Leenes (ed), Opportunities and Risks of Robotics in Relation to Human Values (Pisa University Press, forthcoming) (Italian law).
  • Juels (n 8).
  • M Rieback, B Crispo and A Tanenbaum, 'RFID Guardian: A Battery-Powered Mobile Device for RFID Privacy Management' in Proceedings of the 10th Australasian Conference on Information Security and Privacy (ACISP 2005) (Springer, 2005) 184.
  • Halamka (n 11).
  • Gasson (n 14).
  • 'FAQ: Could you become infected with a computer virus?', www.personal.reading.ac.uk/∼sis04mng/research.
  • A possible attack scenario is to upload specially crafted frmware to a company's servers which if downloaded and utilised to update devices could infect multiple IMDs.
  • D Halperin et al, ‘Security and Privacy for Implantable Medical Devices’ (2008) 7 IEEE Pervasive Computing 30; D Halperin et al, 'Pacemakers and Implantable Cardiac Defbrillators: Software Radio Attacks and Zero-Power Defences' (2008) IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy 129.
  • www.medicaldevice-network.com/news/newsdigital-security-expert-says-medical-device-companies-are-failing-to-make-pacemakers-safe.
  • www.mddionline.com/blog/devicetalk/insulin-pump-hacking-sensationalism-or-legitimate-threat.
  • T Denning, Y Matsuoka and T Kohno, 'Neurosecurity: Security and Privacy for Neural Devices' (2009) 27 Neurosurgical Focus E7.
  • K Fu, 'Inside Risks: Reducing the Risks of Implantable Medical Devices: A Prescription to Improve Security and Privacy of Pervasive Health Care' (2009) 52 Communications of the ACM 25.
  • S Gollakota et al, 'They Can Hear your Heartbeats: Non-Invasive Security for Implantable Medical Devices', Proceedings of the ACM SIGCOMM 2011 conference (ACM, 2011) 2.
  • Personal communication with a leading developer and manufacturer of IMDs.
  • F Xu et al, 'IMDGuard: Securing Implantable Medical Devices with the External Wearable Guardian', Proceedings of the 30th IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM ‘11), 1862.
  • AM Kuncel and WM Grill, ‘Selection of Stimulus Parameters for Deep Brain Stimulation’ (2004) 115 Clinical Neurophysiology 2431; B Piallat et al, 'Monophasic but not Biphasic Pulses Induce Brain Tissue Damage during Monopolar High-Frequency Deep Brain Stimulation' (2009) 64 Neurosurgery 156.
  • Ian Walden, Computer Crimes and Digital Investigations (Oxford University Press, 2007) 157–9.
  • Ibid, 157.
  • See above, section III.
  • Convention on Cybercrime, Explanatory Report, § 23.
  • Hoge Raad [Dutch Supreme Court] 26 March 2013, LJN BY9718.
  • See eg Art 2 Cybercrime Convention ('access to the whole or any part of a computer system without right'); Art 1(1)(a) Computer Misuse Act 1990 (UK) ('secure access to any program or data held in any computer'); Art 138ab Criminal Code (Netherlands) ('intentional and unlawful access to a computer or a part thereof') (authors' translation).
  • Walden (n 65) 161.
  • Some statutes, such as the French and Italian Criminal Codes, have specifcally criminalised unlawfully remaining ‘in’ a computer system after lawful access: see Ulrich Sieber, General Report on Internet Crimes for the 18th International Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law Washington DC 2010 (Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law, 2010) 20. Other countries will have to rely on courts interpreting whether or not ‘unlawful access’ covers the situation of overstepping authority; generally, this will be considered the case. See Jonathan Clough, Principles of Cybercrime (Cambridge University Press, 2010) 72, with references, and 89–92 for a discussion of UK cases.
  • Sieber (n 72) 20.
  • See above, section IV.
  • R v Ireland, R v Burstow [1998] AC 147.
  • See above, section IV.
  • Gerechtshof [Court of Appeal] Arnhem 21 May 2010, LJN BM6055 [NL].
  • Gerechtshof [Court of Appeal] Amsterdam 21 February 2013, LJN BZ2055 [NL]; Rechtbank [District Court] Zutphen 9 February 2010, LJN BL3094.
  • Andrew Ashworth, Principles of Criminal Law (Oxford University Press, 5th edn 2006) 314–15.
  • DPP v K [1990] Cr App R 23; see also Ashworth (n 79) 315.
  • Ashworth (n 79) 316.
  • Ibid, 309.
  • J Remmelink, Mr D Hazewinkel-Suringa's Inleiding tot de studie van het Nederlandse Strafrecht (Gouda Quint, 13th edn 1994) 126.
  • Cf FX Shen, 'Mind, Body, and the Criminal Law' (2013) 97 Minnesota Law Review 2036, 2048, demonstrating that bodily injury definitions vary significantly among US states and that, with only few exceptions, mental injury is not explicitly included in body integrity provisions, and, at 2112, that jury interpretations of whether bodily injury includes mental injury depend signifcantly on how the question is framed.
  • s 20 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, for example, includes ‘recognizable psychiatric injury’: see Ashworth (n 79) 310; in Dutch law, serious bodily injury includes ‘malfunction of the intellectual powers that lasts longer than four weeks' (Art 82(2) DCC, our translation).
  • Ashworth (n 79) 321; Remmelink (n 83) 359.
  • See eg Pretty v United Kingdom (2002) 35 EHRR 1.
  • Laskey et al v UK (1997) 24 EHRR 38; KA and AD v Belgium (ECtHR, 17 February 2005, App No 41758/98).

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