Abbott releases cyber updates for St. Jude devices after government probe

The ticker and trading information for St. Jude Medical is displayed where the stock is traded on the floor of the NYSE (Copyright Reuters 2017)

Abbott Laboratories said on Monday it is releasing cyber security updates for its St. Jude heart devices following a U.S. government investigation into claims the products are vulnerable to potentially life-threatening hacks.

"The improvements include security updates that complement the company's existing security measures and further reduce the already extremely low cybersecurity risks," the company said in an email to physicians that was reviewed by Reuters.