St. Jude Medical, a global medical device manufacturer, saw its shares dip briefly after Muddy Waters Capital published a report Aug. 25 suggesting the company's cardiac devices are susceptible to being hacked, according to a CNBC report. The stock decreased by 8 percent, but recovered later in the day.
In its report, Muddy Waters Capital, a short selling firm, described two types of attacks against St. Jude's cardiac devices — one is a "crash" attack that causes malfunction and the other is a "battery drain" attack, proving harmful to those who are dependent on the devices. Low-level hackers could conduct both types of attacks on the devices, noted the Muddy Waters report. If the products were to be recalled, St. Jude could experience a 50 percent decrease in revenue for the next two years, according to the report.
If the Muddy Waters allegations are proven, Abbott Laboratories' planned acquisition of St. Jude Medical could be derailed, Bloomberg reported.
"The allegations are absolutely untrue," Phil Ebeling, St. Jude's chief technology officer told Bloomberg. "There are several layers of security measures in place."
Abbott officials did not offer any comments.