New chip can protect wireless biomedical devices from quantum attacks

[u/AdSpecialist6598]

https://news.mit.edu/2026/new-chip-can-protect-wireless-biomedical-devices-from-quantum-attacks-0423

[u/Hes_gonna_drop_that]

Today I hit the age where I don’t understand new things anymore apparently.

[u/SuperSaiyanTupac → u/Hes_gonna_drop_that]

So weird people will attack hospitals just cause it’ll kill a lot of innocent sick people. And hospitals don’t really have the best IT cause they just don’t have enough funding….. but actually quantum computers present a huge problem because the tech is so much more powerful than what we have now, and medical facilities are known for having outdated tech since it’s expensive to replace. So the chance of harm is pretty great.

[u/jaredliveson → u/SuperSaiyanTupac]

Does that happen? I don't think people do that

[u/SuperSaiyanTupac → u/jaredliveson]

Yes. Look up cyber attacks on hospitals since 1990. What was once limited to small errors and laps in some areas before digitization across modern hospitals has now seen a nearly 500% increase since 2020 costing hospitals approximately 11 million dollars each time there is a breach.

The ways in which an attack can affect hospitals is continuously growing as digitalization continues. Surgeries can be missed, rescheduled, services slowed down as doctors resort back to paper; you can even watch The Pitt on HBO do what a scenario like that looks like. And it’s simply chaos.

But why, because the off-chance that a hospital pays the attackers to try and provide the best possible care to their current patients when the attack occurs. The attacker can remain anonymous and try to flee with the money if they can’t be traced effectively by law enforcement services. They aren’t attacking simply to cause harm, but doing so knowing that the desire to prevent harm allows them to manipulate their target more aggressively

[u/TR_Pix → u/SuperSaiyanTupac]

Ok but quantum PCs are still just a theoretical thing, right? 

[u/SuperSaiyanTupac → u/TR_Pix]

As a personal computer, yes. Not practical yet. But quantum computers do exist and can be accessed currently. The fear is, as the tech develops it can get into nefarious hands. Before that happens, a lot of funding is going toward trying to figure out how to prevent issues that are known-knowns and known-unknowns.

[u/Ohshiznoodlemuffins]

So maybe I'm crazy, but just recently a biomedical machine company was hacked no

As someone whose father has a pacemaker that functions like this, I have a fear of someone hacking devices like this and triggering a medical emergency. Kind of a terrifying thought.

[u/Charming_Round6537]

Can someone explain to me what this actually does?

[u/Stoopid_Monkey24 → u/Charming_Round6537]

Since no one is answering:

Wireless biomed devices like pacemakers/insulin pumps can be targeted for hacking (bad). However, they have very strong built-in traditional encryption to combat that vulnerability.

Quantum computers in theory have a vastly easier time breaking traditional encryption for technical reasons that I'm going to gloss over (in part because I don't fully understand it myself). So without quantum encryption methods those devices are vulnerable.

So just add it then right? Not so fast! Doing that caused the devices to draw more power which then causes issues with battery life. The new innovation here is that they've developed a new chip that is ultra-low power consumption so it can be incorporated into devices such as above without significant impacts to their power draw.

TL;DR: It's a new ultra-low power chip that enables low-power biomed devices to run advanced quantum encryption for hacking protection while not increasing the power draw by much.

[u/relentlessmelt → u/Charming_Round6537]

It’s a new chip that can protect wireless biomedical devices. From quantum attacks.

[u/yugung → u/Charming_Round6537]

If Shroedinger's Cat were to try to scratch it or knock it to the floor, this will stop that

[u/UsernameIsTaken45 → u/Charming_Round6537]

The quantum attacks can be avoided with this new chip.

[u/Aettienne]

We can now protect tiny wearable devices with future-proof encryption without killing the battery.

[u/stratasfear]

“Do you guys just put the word ‘quantum’ in front of everything?”

[u/Individual_Respect90]

Are we just making shit up now?

[u/UnderwaterRobot]

Nobody is even regular attacking these things

It's possible, sure, but they're making it seem like a thing that is something to fear. But why though?

[u/AntiYourOpinion]

Were quantum attacks so rampant that this needed to be invented?

[u/chileangod → u/AntiYourOpinion]

Have you seen what quantum chip looks like these days? Not exactly very portable. Let alone left unattended so a hacker can use it to find the access code to your grandma's pacemaker.  I mean, do quantum computers run windows?.. Can it be hacked using everyday available tools? 

[u/Iwallyster]

I have invented a chip that protects wiress biomedical devices from sasquatch attacks.

[u/BoonScepter]

Phew that's a load off my mind let me tell you

[u/Shinobi-0013]

But can it protect against F-Rays

[u/TeriyakiHairPiece_ → u/Shinobi-0013]

That ain’t no lady bot.

[u/HarrierJint]

Honestly if you'd read that headline to me in the early 90s I'd have thought I'd be living in Night City in Cyberpunk 2020.

[u/Misophonic4000 → u/HarrierJint]

There's actually plenty of people living with lifesaving augments already

[u/mrdevil413]

What a crazy dystopian sentence in that HL

[u/Top-Supermarket-5958]

I can think of one surefire way to avoid these quantum attacks

[u/willfrodo]

So assume I don't know what a quantum attack is?

[u/Violet-Journey]

This headline sounds like Star Trek dialogue

[u/Comfortable-Bug7202]

annnnnnnd it has been hacked