severe vulnerabilities found inVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilityits pacemakers . Abbott releasedVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilityits second and final round of planned cybersecurity updates to its pacemakers , programmers and remote monitoring systems to fixVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilitysevere cybersecurity flaws in the devices . The patch will updateVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilitythe battery performance alert , allowing the device to monitor for abnormal battery behavior and automatically vibrate to tell the patient when something is wrong . The planned updates began last year , and the latest firmware update was approvedVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilityby the Food and Drug Administration last week . The update applies toVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilityabout 350,000 of Abbott ’ s implantable cardioverter defibrillators and implantable cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators . The devices were originally manufactured by St Jude Medical , which Abbott acquired last year . At that time , St Jude was under fire for remaining quiet about defibrillator issues that caused rapid battery depletion . The FDA found St Jude continued to ship these devices despite knowing about the defect . In fact , the agency found those flaws caused patient deaths . The flaws , made publicVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilityin 2016 by Muddy Waters and security firm MedSec , could allow an unauthorized user to access the defibrillaors and modify the programming controls . Since acquiring St Jude , Abbott has been working to patchVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilitythose vulnerabilities . The FDA ’ s recall notice said the firmware update will reduce the risk of patient harm due to premature battery depletion and potential exploitation of the flaws in the devices . The update will effectively complete the necessary patches to prevent unauthorized access . The update is not a response to any new flaws , but are merely a continuation of last year ’ s patches , according to officials . `` Technology and its security are always evolving , and this firmware upgrade is part of our commitment to ensuring our products include the latest advancements and protections for patients , '' said Robert Ford , executive vice president of medical devices at Abbott , in a statement .
Recently we ’ ve been writing about LastPass more than seems healthy . March saw two rounds of serious flaws made publicVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilityby Google ’ s Tavis Ormandy ( quickly fixedVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability) , which seemed like a lot for a single week . Days ago , news emergedVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilityof a new issue ( also fixedVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability) in the company ’ s two-factor/two-step authentication ( 2FA ) security . To coin a phrase , all serious flaws are serious – but some are more serious than others . This one matters for two reasons , only one of which will sound flippant : it wasn’t discoveredVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilityby Tavis Ormandy , who at times has seemed to be writing a novella on flaw-hunting with the company ’ s name on it . Another researcher with a taste for LastPass , researcher Martin Vigo , uncoveredVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilitythe latest issue , and it ’ s the 2FA bit of the story that explains the angst . Two-factor authentication ( a term that also refers to more convenient but less secure two-step verification ) matters because it is the crown jewels of everyday security , especially for password managers such as LastPass . The flaws are explainedVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilityby Vigo in a slightly confusing way ( one compromise was subsequently shown not to be exploitable ) but cover overlapping weaknesses that might under specific circumstances allow 2FA to be bypassed when using Google ’ s Authenticator and QR codes . Again a user being logged into LastPass at the time of an attack is entirely possible . Significantly , LastPass quickly stopped using the login hash ( used to authenticate the master password without having to know it ) to retrieve Authenticator ’ s QR codes , and now sets a Cross-Site Request Forgery ( CSRF ) token to plug another weakness . We still don ’ t know why LastPass has been plagued by so many issues in such a short space of time – perhaps it ’ s just a big-name target worth researching – but some of these weaknesses appear to be in its design , the result of decisions to do things in a certain way , probably some years in the past .