Saturday, February 18, 2017

This happened in 2013 and they are finally agreeing to improve their security? 
Jerry DeMarco reports:
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey agreed to pay $1.1 million and improve data-security practices to settle charges that it failed to properly protect the privacy of nearly 690,000 state policyholders whose personal information was contained on two laptops stolen from the insurer’s Newark headquarters.
The insurance giant — New Jersey’s largest healthcare provider — agreed to the settlement after state Division of Consumer Affairs investigators found that the company’s failure to comply with federal data security standards threatened to expose private information of its members, Division Director Steve Lee said.  That included names, addresses, birthdates, insurance identifications — and, in some instances, Social Security numbers and limited clinical data.  The policyholder data on the stolen laptops was password protected, but not encrypted, as required by federal law.
Read more on Hackensack Daily Voice.
Horizon was recently in the news again about the 2013 breach after the Third Circuit ruled that plaintiffs had standing under the FCRA.  You can read that coverage here.
The following is the full text of the state’s press release about today’s settlement announcement:
   The investigation further revealed that the laptops stolen in 2013 were issued to employees not required to store ePHI on their laptops, in violation of a company policy limiting access to ePHI information to employees who needed it to accomplish their job functions.


“Don’t worry, you can trust us!”  Some of this is “We don’t know” and some is “Telling you would make us look really stupid.” 
Grant Hermes reports:
Calling it a “catch-22”, Oklahoma state officials declined to release which state agency was discovered to have been attacked by hackers, claiming on Wednesday that releasing the name could compromise the agency further.
Last week, the state director of Oklahoma CyberCommand [Does Colorado have a CyberCommand?  Bob] told a House of Representative committee an agency had been attacked and confirmed the CyberCommand was investigating a “suspicion” the agency was forced to pay a ransom for its data.
However, the investigation revealed that no money had been paid to hackers, according to Tuesday’s joint statement from Governor Mary Fallin’s Office and the Office of Management and Enterprise Services.
Read more on News9.
Apparently the agency that was hacked was one of 20 agencies that had not yet complied with a statewide effort to bring all agencies under one cybersecurity umbrella.  I bet they come into compliance/sign on now.


This is interesting.  The data is out there already.  Collecting it into one place is Okay, and using it is Okay, but if I feel intimidated it suddenly reverts to not Okay? 
Bryan Schott reports:
One Utah lawmaker wants to take action against those who dig up personal information about someone and post it online to intimidate them.
Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, has filed an anti-doxing bill which makes it a second-degree felony if someone posts personal information online, and that information is used to harass someone.  Doxing is short for “document tracing.”
Read more on UtahPolicy.com.
[From the article: 
The bill lays out a list of "identifying information" that, if published online, would fall under this statute. It includes:
·         Address
·         Social security number
·         Telephone number
·         Bank account number
·         Photograph
If the information is already available through legal means, like government records, then posting it online would not fall under this statute.
[From the Bill:  
This bill:
prohibits the disclosure or dissemination of identifying information with the intent or knowledge that the information will be further disseminated;
[Silly non-lawyer me, but if I put the information on my website and in order to access it you had to “agree” not to disseminate it, would I also be exempt?  Bob]


Start spying on them young, it makes them easier to control. 
German parents told to destroy Cayla dolls over hacking fears
An official watchdog in Germany has told parents to destroy a talking doll called Cayla because its smart technology can reveal personal data.
The warning was issued by the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur), which oversees telecommunications.
Researchers say hackers can use an unsecure bluetooth device embedded in the toy to listen and talk to the child playing with it.
   The Cayla doll can respond to a user's question by accessing the internet.  For example, if a child asks the doll "what is a little horse called?" the doll can reply "it's called a foal".


For my Data Management students.
Why big data projects fail and how to make 2017 different
   In my experience, the two main obstacles are lack of skill or expertise, and a mismatch between the technology strategy and overall company needs.  


How much is “new” or ‘different” worth?  How can you tell true disruption from hype? 
Real Estate Is Latest Target for Would-Be Disrupters
A real-estate startup called Compass Inc. has hired hundreds of sales agents away from older rivals, collected $225 million from marquee investors and amassed a valuation of over $1 billion, all with the pitch that its software can make brokers more efficient.
Real-estate veterans say they’re baffled by how the four-year-old firm, active in only a few cities, could be considered one of the most valuable brokerages in the U.S.—a skepticism increasingly familiar to incumbents in old-line industries facing well-funded startups.  Property brokerages typically command modest valuations on Wall Street, as they have few assets and limited growth prospects.
   Executives at the New York-based firm say it is poised for years of fast expansion, with its software eliminating much busy work for brokers.  In theory, this allows them to show more homes and deliver more sales, which, in turn, serves as a recruiting tool—enabling the rapid growth sought by investors.
   Home-reservation service Airbnb Inc. boasts a $30 billion valuation that is just 15% below the word’s biggest hotel company by room count, Marriott International Inc., and 50% more than of No. 2 Hilton Worldwide Holdings.  Electric-car maker Tesla Inc. is fast approaching Ford Motor Co.’s $49 billion market value despite bringing in less than 7% of the Detroit giant’s revenue.


Ah, Bill, when did you go so wrong? 
The robot that takes your job should pay taxes, says Bill Gates
Robots are taking human jobs.  But Bill Gates believes that governments should tax companies’ use of them, as a way to at least temporarily slow the spread of automation and to fund other types of employment.

(Related).
European parliament calls for robot law, rejects robot tax
European lawmakers called on Thursday for EU-wide legislation to regulate the rise of robots, including an ethical framework for their development and deployment and the establishment of liability for the actions of robots including self-driving cars.

But they rejected a proposal to impose a so-called robot tax on owners to fund support for or retraining of workers put out of a job by robots.

   The IFR and others argue that automation and the use of robots create new jobs by increasing productivity, and point to a correlation between robot density and employment in advanced industrial nations, for example in the German car industry.


Did Trump copy India or vice versa?
Does India Need a Radically Different Approach for Rapid Growth?
   At the 2017 One Globe Forum in New Delhi, experts tried to zero in on actionable insights which could help overcome India’s myriad challenges and boost the country’s journey towards becoming a knowledge economy.
   In a session titled “Make in India: creating a 100 million jobs by 2022,” moderator Mahendra Bapna, senior advisor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur, observed that for manufacturing to take off, India needs to “move beyond rhetoric and create a clear strategy and favorable policy environment and improve the ease of doing business.”
   Building on this, Makarand Chipalkatti, managing director of Dr. Chips Consulting, added that it is critical to also improve the ease of starting and closing a business. [Including declaring bankruptcy?  Bob] 
   In a discussion on artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and jobs, Vikram Chachra, CEO and managing director of investment firm Eight Capital, cautioned that as AI and robotics enter manufacturing, there will be a major impact on jobs.


Interesting.  Imagine Castro vouching for Tony Montana.
   Therefore, if a country is unwilling or unable to systematically provide that information, its citizens would be banned from entering the United States.
   The order appears to envision the U.S. government seeking and relying on information from some of the most repressive and dysfunctional regimes in the world, about the citizens who are fleeing them, often because of that repression and dysfunction.  Would the United States rely on the Iranian regime, for example, to vet the requests of Iranian political dissidents and fleeing religious minorities, and to provide the U.S. government reliable information about those dissidents or minorities so the US can grant them a visa?

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