A jolt from the blue? [Microwave Surfing]

Pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) are routinely implanted in U.S. patients, saving and prolonging many lives by helping regulate cardiac function. When one of these devices (newer models) is surgically placed below the patient´s skin, it has the capability of communicating with a nearby external programming unit both for telemetering data from the patient (physiological data as well as identification information) and for receiving instructions that modify the operational parameters of the device, frequently over an unencrypted channel. There´s the rub.