Computer based implants

Courses GCSE Computer Science Ethics & Legalities Computer based implants

Devices Inside the Body

AQA lists computer based implants alongside wearables: pacemakers, cochlear implants, and experimental chips. They sit inside tissue, so a fault or a hack is a medical emergency, not just a lost file.

Updates, wireless settings, and clinic access must be authenticated. Patients may depend on a vendor that later withdraws support. Ethical questions include consent, who owns the data the implant streams, and whether a device can be switched off against someone’s will.

A security failure in an implant is serious because

{"answers": {"A": "It can harm the patient's body, not only their files", "B": "Huffman compression becomes lossy", "C": "The foreign key in a database is deleted", "D": "MAC filtering stops working on Wi-Fi"}, "question_text": "A security failure in an implant is serious because", "correct_answer": "A"}

Implant versus Wearable

Implant

Inside the body. Removal needs surgery. A battery or radio link is a clinical design problem as well as an IT one.

Wearable

On the body. You can take it off tonight. The privacy issues are similar, but you are not relying on it to keep your heart in rhythm.

An [[implant]] sits inside the body. A [[wearable]] can be taken off.

{"cloze_text": "An [[implant]] sits inside the body. A [[wearable]] can be taken off."}

{"keyword": "computer based implant", "definition": "A computing device placed inside the body, such as a pacemaker"}

Question Type: fill in the blanks

{"paragraph": "Implant updates must be [[authenticated]] because a hack could cause [[physical]] harm."}

Question Type: short answer

{"answer": "Who owns the health data / what happens if the vendor stops updates / consent to remote control.", "rubric": {"0": "Incorrect or no response", "1": "Partial credit", "2": "Who owns the health data / what happens if the vendor stops updates / consent to remote control."}, "question": "Give one ethical issue with computer based implants."}