Tuesday, April 07, 2015

Rather unusual, but I expect many more, soon.
It appears we have another criminal prosecution under HIPAA.
In May 2014, ProMedica disclosed that almost 600 Bay Park Hospital patients were to be notified of an insider breach. In June, police announced that no criminal charges would be filed because their investigation found that no patient information such as social security numbers or financial information had been compromised. At the time, they noted that a HIPAA investigation would continue, however.
Today, Amulya Raghuveer reports that Jamie Knapp, the former employee who was a respiratory therapist, has been indicted by a federal court on charges that she unlawfully obtained individually identifiable health information and engaged in unauthorized access of a protected computer. The first charge is under HIPAA, while the second charge is under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).
She is alleged to have accessed patient’s health information between May 10, 2013 to March 25, 2014.
Read more on NBC.
The case is United States of America v. Knapp, 3:15-cr-00132-JJH-1 in the Northern District of Ohio. The indictment does not specify what types of personal information were accessed, although hospital officials have said no financial information was involved. Attachments to the indictment are currently restricted access.


Something for my Intro to Computer Security students. (All my students actually) Interesting tag line: “You are not an individual. You are a data cluster.”
Digital Shadow Exposes What Facebook Really Knows About You
How much can people discover about you over social media? It began as a mere marketing stunt, but Digital Shadow remains a very useful (and potentially scary) application.
Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs is a sci-fi game that works on a smart premise: that our lives can be laid out to a hacker and used against us. Our family, our friends, our interests, our personalities: they build up a digital trail, leaving us exposed. It sounds like an Asimov or Bradbury concept, but the accompanying Digital Shadow, used to advertise the game, shows us that this dystopia isn’t too far removed from today.
By allowing it access to Facebook, Digital Shadow gets to know you. But how accurate is it really? I let it loose on my profile to find out…
… It’s very easy to use. You just sign in using Facebook as you might when commenting on sites.
Within 10 seconds, it’s pulled together all it needs to know.
… Results vary wildly. It depends on how much time you spend on Facebook, how many photos you’re tagged in, how often you update your status.
As a marketing stunt, Ubisoft has done brilliantly. It’s memorable, emotive, and creepy. As a tool to find out about your digital trail, it’s the tip of the iceberg: Facebook knows even more. Nonetheless, this could be wake-up call for millions of people.


I wonder of there were drones looking over their shoulders as they drafted this?
Legislating for Drones: A Guide and Model Ordinances
by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Apr 6, 2015
McNeal, Gregory S. and Rule, Troy A., Legislating for Drones: A Guide and Model Ordinances (April 2, 2015). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2589975
“Drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles, present enormous benefits for local government officials, but they are also creating new conflicts with existing land uses. The growing popularity of drones necessitates the crafting of innovative laws and ordinances designed to safeguard privacy and protect landowners’ property rights. At the same time, many municipalities are also searching for ways to accommodate drone technologies and attract and promote drone-related economic development.
This Guide and its accompanying model ordinances seek to educate local government officials about drone-related laws and to assist them in adopting such laws within their respective jurisdictions. Carefully-crafted drone ordinances can be a low-cost way for local governments to balance competing privacy and economic development concerns related to drones.”


Just because it's a “first” does not mean it's important. Does it?
DOJ files first antitrust case for e-commerce
… David Topkins pleaded guilty to conspiring to illegally fix the prices of posters he sold through an Amazon Marketplace store in the latter half of 2013.
… The Justice Department accused Topkins and his unnamed co-conspirators of using an algorithm to coordinate how they would change the price of their posters and then develop computer code to set prices in accordance with the agreement.


Cheaper than a smartphone but you have to find a monitor to plug into? I don't get it.
Intel's PC-on-a-stick dongle now available for preorder
Newegg is offering preorders of the Compute Stick with a release date of April 24. (Update at 11:11 a.m. PT: now showing out of stock on both with estimated arrival on May 1). The Windows version costs $150 and the Linus version costs $110. Amazon also shows listings for the Windows and Linux versions, but with no pricing or availability information.
… Getting the Compute Stick up and running won't take much. The device is simply plugged into a monitor's HDMI port and turned on. Once it boots up, the owner's operating system of choice is running and with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, the device can provide a full computing experience.
… The Compute Stick is also a competitor to the Asus Chromebit announced last week. Like the Compute Stick, the Asus Chromebit connects to an HDMI monitor and with help from Bluetooth, provides a full computing experience. However, the Chromebit is running on Google's Chrome operating system, rather than the Windows and Linux options available on the Compute Stick. Chromebit is slated to launch this summer for under $100.


Still not exactly what I want my students to use when writing their own textbook, but we're getting closer.
4 Quick Ways to Write & Publish Books on the Web
The world of publishing is changing thanks to the Internet. People aren’t willing to put their fates in the hands of traditional gatekeepers anypmore. Writers aren’t just writers anymore. In a lot of ways, writers are the new publishers.
… But I’m not just talking about the print-on-demand kind of self-publishing. There are a handful of new web services and tools that kick it up to the next level.


For my website students.
How Are Websites Built in 2015?
When it comes to building websites, there are a lot of ways in which the job gets done. While we, as end users, just see the final results, designers have a million things to think about when it comes to how they build a site.
Like everything, web design is all about trends. In 2015, there are a few different ways that websites tend to come together. Interested in a look behind the curtain to see how most websites will come to be in 2015? Check out the infographic below for a fascinating look.
Via Rukzuk


For all my students. “One should drink in the culture!” Oh wait, I said that. (Because today is national beer day http://nationaldaycalendar.com/2015/04/06/april-7-2015-national-beer-day-national-no-housework-day-national-coffee-cake-day-saam-day-of-action/ )
New to Craft Beer? Start with the Best Beer Websites & Communities
… Admittedly, beer is an acquired taste. [Some of us acquired a love of beer at first sip. Bob] At this point, non-drinkers of beer are asking, “Why go through the misery of acquiring the taste?” Because once acquired, beer offers a certain world of taste that no other beverage can — as long as you avoid the mainstream macro brands.
If you simply don’t like beer, that’s fine! Drink what you like and don’t let anyone — including myself — tell you otherwise. But if you want to experience the wonders of craft beer, then these websites will help you on that journey.


For those of us still using the biblical method (Seek and ye shall find)
Teach yourself Touch Typing with Free Tools
Touch typing, or the art of typing with your 10 fingers, can do wonders to your productivity. Most technologically literate people know a bit of typing but if you can type without looking at the computer keyboard, you can get work done faster and gain an edge.
… If you are just getting started, the BBC’s Dance Mat Typing should be your go-to resource. It is a browser-based game for kids where each lesson touches a different set of keys and there’s a game at the end of each level to test what you have learned. The lessons would require the Adobe Flash player enabled in your browser.
The next recommended resource is Typing.com, a free website where you’ll find interactive tutorials and drills to help you learn typing step-by-step. Typing Study is a similar resource but unlike other typing lesson that focus on the English keyboard, Typing Study has lessons for keyboards of most popular languages including Hindi and it requires no Flash Player either.
Tipp10 (Mac, Windows) and Typist (Mac only) are desktop software that teach typing offline and you also have the option to upload your own text – like pages of your favorite novel – for practice.


Very slick! My students often take pictures of the Math problems I work on the whiteboard. Perhaps there is a use for this App?
Office Lens - Digitize Handwritten Notes and Diagrams
Office Lens is a new app for iOS and Android (still in limited beta) designed for converting pictures of notes on whiteboards and paper into notes that can be edited in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint. If you don't need to edit the notes that your take pictures of, you can simply export the file created by Office Lens to JPEG or PDF. Probably the neatest aspect of Office Lens is that hand-drawn images and figures captured through the app can be separated from the text to move and manipulate as individual objects in PowerPoint slides. See the video below for an overview of Office Lens.
Office Lens could be a great app for students to use to snap a picture of something on a whiteboard then add their own comments to it in a Word Document.
The option in Office Lens to separate hand-drawn objects could be a good way to digitize a brainstorming session. When I brainstorm I often do it in a paper notebook that has pages of edits. By taking a picture of the brainstorming session I could separate each part of the notes then move them into new positions on slides or in a document.

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