A scientist installed a PC virus into himself showing potential threat

A scientist at the University of Reading deliberately infected himself (by way of an RFID chip implanted in his wrist) with a benign computer virus in an experiment meant to show the vulnerability and susceptibility of bionic devices to computer viruses.

Dr. Mark Gasson wears a device in his right arm which is an RFID (radio-frequency identification) chip that emits a signal and allows him to access certain parts of the University of Reading laboratory, as well as operate his cell phone. Thus, the chip is functioning like a swipe-card.

Gasson and his colleagues created a virus for this chip and installed it. Gasson went to the laboratory and when the lab’s computers read the code the virus penetrated the database and started replicating itself. Each time other colleagues swiped their conventional swipe cards they got infected with the virus.

Thus, the experiment proved that viruses can be transferred wirelessly from implant devices. Taking this into consideration scientists express their concern over that someone can create a virus that would allow them to access secure areas but that is not the main concern. While a computer virus in Gasson's arm won't affect his health--that's not the case for a lot of other people with bionic implants. People with pacemakers, cochlear implants (for the hearing-impaired), and deep brain stimulators (for neurological conditions), for example, could be in big trouble if a virus infected their implanted devices.