Securing implantable cardiac medical devices: use of radio frequency energy harvesting

Implantable Medical Devices (IMDs) are surgically implanted into a human body to collect physiological data and perform medical therapeutic functions. They are increasingly being used to improve the quality of life of patients by treating chronic ailments such as cardiac arrhythmia, diabetes, and Parkinson's disease. Wireless IMDs have shown recently important security concerns. In particular, it has been stated that lethal attacks can be launched on these devices. In this paper, we propose a solution to secure IMDs against unauthorized access, battery depletion, and denial of service attacks. A Radio Frequency energy harvesting solution is used to design a powerless mutual authentication protocol. A technique for dynamic biometric keys extraction from electrocardiogram signals collected at both sides (the programmer and the IMD) is used, allowing to secure access to the IMD devices in regular and emergency situations.