Abbott releases cyber patches for heart implants after US probe

Boston

ABBOTT Laboratories moved to protect patients with its St Jude heart implants against possible cyber attacks, releasing a software patch on Monday that the firm said will reduce the "extremely low" chance of them being hacked.

The company disclosed the moves some five months after the US government launched a probe into claims the devices were vulnerable to potentially life-threatening hacks that could cause implanted devices to pace at potentially dangerous rates or cause them to fail by draining their batteries.