On August 25, 2016, investment firm Muddy Waters Research announced it had taken a short position in St. Jude Medical, Inc., and released a report suggesting a “strong possibility that close to half of” St. Jude revenues were about to disappear for a period of roughly two years because St. Jude’s implantable cardiac devices were allegedly vulnerable to cyberattacks. The report further stated that the cyberattacks included crash attacks that cause devices to malfunction—including by apparently pacing at a potentially dangerous rate and battery drain attack that could be particularly harmful to device-dependent users.
In the Summer 2017 edition of The Life Sciences Report, a group of attorneys from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati explore select ramifications of a medical device hack, and provide some suggested best practices for companies that offer medical devices to the public. Click here to read the complete article.