A taxonomy of vulnerabilities in implantable medical devices

Once the domain of science fiction, devices connecting biological systems with computers have become reality. Security vulnerabilities that might be exploited in such systems by malicious parties or by inadvertent manipulation are also now a reality. Where previous research has described certain categories of attacks against and countermeasures for implantable medical devices (IMDs), we construct a loose vulnerability taxonomy useful for the design of countermeasures that reinforce the security of these devices and evaluate avenues of attack that are novel to devices implanted in the body. Using this taxonomy, we discuss several well-known and novel countermeasures and discuss the specific categories of attacks that each can foil.