Similar to sharpening a chain saw while it's running...

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_NH_Patient_Data.html

Wash. company blamed for online data breach at N.H. hospital

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CONCORD, N.H. -- Names, addresses, birth dates, phone and Social Security numbers of more than 9,000 Concord Hospital patients were exposed on the Internet for more than a month, and the hospital's president said there's no way of knowing whether any were poached by criminals.

The hospital sent letters Friday notifying 9,297 patients and confirmed the breach Saturday to the Concord Monitor. A statement posted Sunday on its Web site said Concord Hospital was working to ensure no future security lapses.

Concord Hospital said Verus, Inc., an online billing contractor based in Bellevue, Wash., disabled an electronic firewall protecting the information on April 12 to perform maintenance, then inadvertently left if off. Verus notified Concord Hospital of the breach on May 30.

... Green said the hospital waited a week to notify patients because it wasn't clear how many people were affected until Thursday and wanted to investigate on its own.

... The hospital sent the letter and notified the attorney general's consumer protection bureau on Friday.

... "We responded as quickly as we could once we became aware of the situation," Green said. "I am truly sorry for any inconvenience this will cause for any of our patients."

Concord Hospital is the only New Hampshire hospital [sounds like much more to come. See next article. Bob] affected by the breach, he said.

Green said the security lapse was due to human error; the hospital is talking to lawyers and looking for a new online billing provider. In the meantime, it has indefinitely disabled its "my bill" Web payment option.

http://www.pogowasright.org/blogs/dissent/?p=461

Verus, Inc. and patient privacy breaches

Sunday June 10th 2007, 10:43 am

There have been no headlines naming Verus, Inc., but the company appears to be responsible for three recently reported hospital-related privacy breaches.

Verus, Inc. provides online patient financial services such as bill-paying, and other services. I first became aware of them when their name appeared in a story about a privacy breach affecting 550 patients at Stevens Hospital in Edmonds, Washington. The incident appeared in news on June 4, and a follow-up story on the incident in the June 6th Mukilteo Beacon reported that:

From mid-April until May 22, Internet users could directly access the information on servers at Bellevue-based Verus Incorporated, which has managed Stevens’ online bill-payment system since the service began in December 2006. That service is currently suspended.

[…]

After a firewall error opened up the Verus server, Google’s search engine catalogued the information stored there, making it accessible to anybody at google.com.

On May 22, an Edmonds woman inadvertently accessed the database while searching for information about a deceased friend. She immediately notified Stevens, according to CEO Carter.

Two days later, there was a story that 1000 patients were affected by a breach at Kennewick General Hospital in Washington:

KGH did not make the mistake, but rather Verus, a Bellevue company it hires to process online bill payments, did.

Although the story does not explain the details of the incident, the wording would be consistent with unintended web exposure.

And then one day later, yet another report — this one from Concord Hospital in New Hampshire — that 9,000 patients’ names, addresses, dates of birth and social security numbers were unprotected on the internet “for a period of time.” According to that report in the Concord Monitor:

A Washington-based company called Verus Inc. notified Concord Hospital May 30 that an unintentional lapse had occurred in the data security procedures when the company turned off a firewall for maintenance purposes.

I don’t know how many hospital clients Verus, Inc. has, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there are other hospital or health care facilities affected by this “firewall error” that we may find out about in the weeks to come. So far, I do not see any statement on Verus, Inc.’s web site.

If the computers were “discarded,” are they abandoned property? Any legal questions here?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070610073233422

NJ: A drive to destroy data

Sunday, June 10 2007 @ 07:32 AM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

It was the stuff of municipal nightmares. Confidential police information, extracted from discarded Ewing Township computers, posted on the Internet for all to see.

Now, as Ewing officials breathe a sigh of relief that the computers have been returned and the Web site shut down, computer experts say government agencies across the state should view the embarrassingly public security breach as a modern-day cautionary tale.

Source - The Times

Think anyone cares?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070610071247263

A Race to the Bottom - Privacy Ranking of Internet Service Companies

Sunday, June 10 2007 @ 07:12 AM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

This report has been prepared by Privacy International following a six-month investigation into the privacy practices of key Internet based companies. The ranking lists the best and the worst performers both in Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 across the full spectrum of search, email, e-commerce and social networking sites.

The analysis employs a methodology comprising around twenty core parameters. We rank the major Internet players but we also discuss examples of best and worst privacy practice among smaller companies.

Source - Privacy International Related - Interim Rankings [pdf]

Hummm... Can facial recognition be far behind?

http://www.researchbuzz.org/wp/2007/06/10/until-we-have-faces-on-google-images/

Until We Have Faces (On Google Images)

Filed under: Multimedia-Images, Search Engines-Google

In case you didn’t see this over at Pandia — Pandia has noted an interesting feature Google image search. If you search for something and then add &imgtype=face to the result URL, you will get only results that have faces in them.

Content is sometimes rather esoteric...

http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/top/index.php?ntid=158578&ntpid=1

THU., JUN 7, 2007 - 9:57 AM

All state Blue Books now online

DOUG ERICKSON 608-252-6149 derickson@madison.com

Wisconsin's Blue Book, the venerable chronicle of all things state government and so much more, becomes a fully searchable online database today -- all 56,000 pages of 87 editions.

For the first time, every word of the biennial almanac, including the rare inaugural edition of 1853, will be available free on the Web.

The digitization project is expected to be a boon for history buffs, schoolchildren, genealogists and anyone wanting to know how many votes socialist gubernatorial candidate Rae Weaver received in Washburn County in 1916. [Anyone? Anyone? Bob]

Globalization. Does everyone need their own PC?

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9727337-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Analysts: 1 Billion PCs in use by end of 2008

Posted by Erica Ogg June 10, 2007 9:01 PM PDT

It's taken 27 years to reach 1 billion PCs in use, and market researchers say it will take only five to reach the next billion.

Forrester Research is set to release a report Monday titled, "Worldwide PC Adoption Forecast to 2015," saying that many of those next billion will be used by first-time PC users in emerging nations like Brazil, Russia, India and China. At least 775 million new PCs will be in use in those countries by 2015, according to Forrester.

Not only is access to computers beneficial to those users, it also will represent a big bump in sales for PC manufacturers and sellers. Though the computer industry can still profit from selling replacement machines to existing users, the big money to be made is in the far greater number of users who have never owned one.

There are, of course, drawbacks in entering new markets, the report warns. Computer sellers in mature markets can count on a fairly predictable cycle of PC buying, but untapped markets are hardly as predictable and vendors will likely need to work together to scale production appropriately over the next decade, says Forrester.

Additionally, at least part of the bump in PC ownership and use will be due to programs like One Laptop Per Child, Microsoft's Unlimited Potential, Intel's World Ahead, and AMD's 50X15, which aim to bring low-cost computing to underprivileged students and developing countries.

Question: Why are these sites the “most visited?” Are more people thinking or are they looking at what a few think?

http://www.prwatch.org/node/6122

New Participatory Project: Updating Profiles on Think Tanks

Topics: activism | citizen journalism | think tanks Source: SourceWatch

Some of the highest traffic pages in SourceWatch are those on the proliferating number of think tanks scattered around the world. Keeping track of what their latest projects are, their finances and key personnel is a challenge. That's where you come in. The profiles on think tanks that are in our top 100 most visited pages, in order of page views over the last week, are those on Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Heartland Institute. With a little bit of effort from a handful of citizen editors we could make sure the profiles are right up to date. Or, if you'd prefer to pick one of the other think tanks, go right ahead. What we need to check is that listed staff and office bearers are current, funding information is as up to date as possible, contact