Fairbanks Hospital in
Indianapolis is notifying an undisclosed number of patients that employees
could have been accessing protected health information of patients since at
least November 2013 (and possibly earlier). The information that was accessed included
current and former patients’ social security numbers, contact information,
diagnosis, treatment and health insurance.
In a notification dated December 16, the hospital writes
that they are unaware of any actual or attempted misuse of any protected health
information.
Of concern,
it appears that their investigators were not able to determine whether any
employee actually accessed any patient’s record inappropriately. So it may well be that some employees snooped
on records, and yet, the hospital would not have been able to detect that. And if it couldn’t detect whether the
employees were accessing PHI records inappropriately, it sounds like they might
have to notify every patient seen at the hospital since November 2013. DataBreaches.net has sent an inquiry to
Fairbanks via their site contact form and will update this post as more
information becomes available.
From their notification:
… What
Happened? On October 18, 2016, Fairbanks became aware that
some files on our internal network that contained patient information were
electronically accessible to Fairbanks employees, including employees who were
not intended to have access to patient information. Fairbanks hired an outside computer forensics
expert to determine the nature and scope of this issue. The investigation has determined that this
issue existed since at least November of 2013, however we are unable to
determine whether the issue existed prior to that time.
The economics of hacking.
Supply and demand. The disruption
of new technology. All well understood
processes, right?
Maria Korolov reports:
The black market value of stolen
medical records dropped dramatically this year, and criminals shifted their
efforts from stealing data to spreading ransom ware, according to a report
released this morning.
Hackers are now offering stolen
records at between $1.50 and $10 each, said Anthony James, CMO at San Mateo,
Calif.-based security firm TrapX, the
company that produced the report.
That down a bit since this
summer, when a hacker
offered 10 million patient records for about $820,000 — or about $12
per record — and even a bigger drop from 2012, when the World Privacy Forum put
the street value of medical records at around $50 each.
Read more on Network
World.
[From the
article:
The information in medical records can be used for medical
billing fraud as well as identity theft and other big-money scams.
But the market has become saturated, said James. With about 112 million records stolen in 2015 alone,
the medical info of nearly half all
Americans is already out there.
For my Data Management students.
If you want to see how mobile technology can disrupt the
very basics of business models and habits established over hundreds if not
thousands of years, look at what’s happening in India. A telecommunications revolution, towards
fourth generation (4G) mobile services, will transform the consumer landscape
over the next 5-10 years. This
revolution will transform India the same way automobiles changed America 100
years ago but at ten times the speed — computers, laptops, and tablets will be
marginalized as India leapfrogs to mobile 4G by 2020. The consequences are far more revolutionary
than have been considered by multinational companies and entrepreneurs. In order to
create value in India in the coming decade, companies must have a mobile-first strategy.
Some background: Until the mid-1980s, having telephone
service in India was considered the ultimate luxury and less than 0.001% of the
population possessed a phone. By July
2016, virtually every Indian had a mobile
telephone and access to text messaging, primarily using 2G
technology.
(Related). Maybe not
everyone has a phone?
Uber’s Drive Into India Relies on Raw Recruits
How do you train a million new Uber drivers in a country
where most people have never driven a car, tapped on a smartphone or even used
an online map?
I didn’t know Uber had such power! (Or is it that now states have so
little?)
Md. approves alternative screening process for ride-hailing
drivers, amid threats Uber would leave
The Maryland Public Service Commission approved an
alternative screening process that would allow Uber and Lyft to continue
operating in the state without conducting fingerprint-based background checks
of their drivers.
The decision Thursday averted a showdown with
California-based Uber — which had threatened to leave Maryland — and
represented a victory in the ride-hailing companies’ battles against regulations
that would have threatened their ability to maintain tens of thousands of
drivers in the state.
Uber and Lyft had argued that the electronic checks they
use, supplemented by court records, are as, or more, thorough than the
law-enforcement-backed methods suggested by regulators.
Might be amusing to
House Intel Committee Releases Declassified Snowden Report
by Sabrina
I. Pacifici on Dec 22, 2016
News release: “The House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence today released a declassified version of its investigative report
on Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who fled to
China and then Russia after stealing an estimated 1.5 million classified
documents. The report, including
redactions for classified information, was the result of a two-year inquiry into Snowden’s background, likely
motivations, and methods of theft, as well as the damage done to U.S. national security
as a result of his actions. The report
was completed in September 2016 and submitted to the Intelligence Community for
a declassification review.
To read the declassified report, click here.
To read Intelligence Committee
highlights of the report, click here.
- Via The Guardian – “…The report’s credibility was immediately condemned by Snowden’s lawyer Ben Wizner. He dismissed the report and insisted that Snowden acted to inform the public. “The House committee spent three years and millions of dollars in a failed attempt to discredit Edward Snowden, whose actions led to the most significant intelligence reforms in a generation,” Wizner said. “The report wholly ignores Snowden’s repeated and courageous criticism of Russian surveillance and censorship laws. It combines demonstrable falsehoods with deceptive inferences to paint an entirely fictional portrait of an American whistleblower.”
- Snowden’s Twitter response: Unsurprising that HPSCI’s report is rifled with obvious falsehoods. The only surprise is how accidentally exonerating it is
Does he have a point?
McDonald's sued because 'Extra Value Meal' is 41 cents more
For my Spreadsheet class this Spring.
We are trying to get an AI course approved.
This must be one of Trump’s lawyers?
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