Even as computer firms scramble to re-secure their on-line firewalls and safeties to prevent another iCloud hacking scandal, law authorities and medical professionals are quietly worrying if a computer hacker could break into systems such as pacemakers to commit a murder without firing a shot or leaving a trail. 

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Acknowledging that as critical heath systems are incorporated into the Internet, Europol, the criminal intelligence enforcement arm of the European Union, released a report condemning governments' ill-preparedness against "injury and possible deaths" as technology outpaces security and the Internet of Everything (IoE) becomes more viable, more pervasive, and opens up more fronts for hackers to attack.

"The latter will be exacerbated by devices that are no longer supported or are so small that they do not have security built into them or were not designed with security in mind. Moreover, policy makers are often not part of the early phases either, which may result in a lack of relevant legislation and regulation," the report states. 

Based on the amount of computer security defects already found and used for malicious intent, the Europol report cited a study provided by the US security firm IID that grimly predicts the first "on-line murder" would occur by the end of 2014.

The report reads: "The IoE represents a whole new attack vector that we believe criminals will already be looking for ways to exploit."

In 2011, a computer expert demonstrated how he could remotely manipulate an insulin pump to deliver a fatal dose to kill the user. 

Europol  expects "new forms of blackmailing and extortion schemes (e.g., ransomware for smart cars or smart homes), data theft, physical injury and possible death, and new types of botnets."

"There's already this huge quasi-underground market where you can buy and sell vulnerabilities that have been discovered," Rod Rasmussen, president of IID, said. 

A similar killing involving a malevolent hacker and a pacemaker was portrayed on the TV show Homeland. Although that scenario was pure Hollywood thrill, its real-world implications led former U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney to have the wireless function of his own pacemaker disabled.

TagsOn-line, Murder, Internet of Everything, IoE, pacemaker, insulin pump