On October 21, 2016, Singh
& Arora Oncology Hematology PC in Michigan
notified HHS of a hacking incident that they reported impacted 16,000 patients. Today, we learn that 22,000 patients are
first getting notification letters this week.
Why has it taken more than three months since HHS was notified for
patients to be notified?
Jessica Dupnack reports:
According to the letter, one of
the practice’s servers was being accessed by an unauthorized user for nearly
seven months between February and July of last year.
It wasn’t until August 2016 that
they were notified of a problem.
So unauthorized access went on for almost five months
(from February 27 – July 14), they learned of the problem on August 22, 2016,
and they reported it two months later to HHS, but didn’t notify the patients
until February of 2017? Why the long gap
to notifying patients?
The files accessed contain names,
insurance information and social security numbers.
The letter from Singn and Arora
says the hackers were apparently not after this personal information. There is no indication it was used for
identity theft, but they can’t say with total certainty that the information
wasn’t compromised.
I wonder what makes them think the hackers were not after
the PII or PHI. Although the reporter
says “an unauthorized user” accessed the server, the letter (pieces of which
were shown in the video of the news report) indicates that during those months,
it was accessed by “unauthorized users” (plural). The letter also indicates that addresses,
telephone number, date of birth, and CPT codes were in the accessed files.
So how can they know the information wasn’t used for
identity theft when no one had been notified or might know to report any
identity theft to them?
Michigan media outlets might want to pursue the question
of why the delay in notification.
A sure method for capturing really stupid terrorists and insulting
everyone else. What would they do to
someone like me that uses no social media?
DHS mulls password collection at borders
by on
FCW.com – “John Kelly, the new secretary of the Department
of Homeland Security, testified that foreign travelers coming to the United
States could be required to give up social media passwords to border officials
as a condition of entry. “We want to
say, for instance, which websites do you visit, and give us your passwords, so
we can see what they do on the internet,” he said at a Feb. 7 House Homeland
Security hearing, his first congressional hearing since his Senate
confirmation. “If they don’t want to give us that information, they don’t come in.”
Kelly noted that while this was “still a
work in progress” and not necessarily “what we’re going to do right now,” he
added that President Donald Trump’s freeze on entry to the U.S. by citizens of
seven countries, “is giving us an opportunity… to get more serious than we have
been about how we look at people coming into the United States.”
I hate fax machines.
I write a request in my word processor, then print it, fax it, the FBI
gets it and re-enters it into their computer system? How is that more efficient? We need a law that says you can’t go back to
pre-Civil War technology. (Patented in
France in 1858.)
Is the FBI Really Going Back to the Fax Machine for FOIA
Requests?
The FBI quietly announced a new policy starting next month
that requires all Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to be sent via fax
or through regular U.S. Mail and it is a move that seems to have made some
government transparency advocates a little frustrated. A small number of requests can still me made
through an online portal, but that will reportedly require users to provide
personal information to the FBI to access the system.
… According to the
Daily Dot, the policy is part of a larger government agency effort
that they say seems to “intentionally rely on archaic technologies to process
public records requests.” The CIA and the
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which handles secret
government technologies, also requires fax requests, according to the report.
You can’t eat analytics, so why add them to the menu?
More Data, Better Dining?
In order for a restaurant to be successful, it has to
focus on more than just food and beverages. The industry is known for its tight profit
margins, and without savvy owners, it’s really hard for even the best and most
beloved restaurants to survive.
Damian Mogavero, a dining-industry consultant, has
analyzed the data behind thousands of restaurants—which dishes get ordered,
which servers bring in the highest bills, and even what the weather’s like—and
found that these metrics can help inform the decisions and practices of
restaurateurs. Ultimately, Mogavero
believes that the data he collects is really a way to learn how to make
customers happy
Perspective. As
computers evolve from calculator to thinking machine…
What to Expect From Artificial Intelligence
… The task that AI
makes abundant and inexpensive is prediction — in other words, the
ability to take information you have and generate information you didn’t
previously have. In this article, we
will demonstrate how improvement in AI is linked to advances in prediction. We will explore how AI can help us solve
problems that were not previously prediction oriented, how the value of some
human skills will rise while others fall, and what the implications are for
managers. Our speculations are informed
by how technological change has affected the cost of previous tasks, allowing
us to anticipate how AI may affect what workers and managers do.
Sounds simple. My
Data Management students will find out that it is not.
Retale acquires shopping list app Out of Milk
Retale, a technology company
that develops mobile-first shopping experiences, today announced the
acquisition of Out of Milk, the biggest shopping list app on Android in North
America.
Out of Milk has had more than 10 million downloads, and it
fits with Retale’s core mission of providing mobile products and services that
meet shoppers’ needs at every stage of the customer journey.
… Out of Milk also
makes it easy to share lists with family and friends on mobile, desktop, and
email; shopping lists are instantly synced as changes are made across devices
and platforms, eliminating any confusion.
Perspective. For
all my students. So much data that one
cloud isn’t enough?
The future isn't cloud. It's multi-cloud
Cloud computing was supposed to simplify IT environments. Now, according to a recent study by Microsoft and 451 Research,
nearly a third of organizations work with four or more cloud vendors. It would seem multi-cloud is the future of
cloud computing.
That and few dollars will get you a cup of coffee. Wouldn’t this be better if they partnered with
a law firm?
Starbucks Is Giving Employees Free Legal Advice on
Immigration
After pledging to hire thousands of refugees, Starbucks is now offering its employees free legal advice
on immigration.
The coffee giant sent a letter to workers
Monday, saying that the company had partnered
with Ernest & Young to offer free legal advice to "help
navigate immigration issues and get answers in these uncertain times," CNNMoney reported.
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