Medicare data breach: government response ‘contemptible’,
says former AFP officer
The federal government’s response to a Medicare data
breach that led to patient details being sold on the dark web was
“disappointing, confusing and often contemptible,” according to a former
detective who headed the Australian federal police’s investigations into high-tech
crime.
… A
Guardian Australia investigation revealed in July
that a darknet vendor on a popular auction site for illegal products was
selling access to anyone’s Medicare card details. The seller used an Australian Department of
Human Services logo to advertise what they called “the Medicare machine”.
… A few days after
Guardian Australia revealed the data breach, Tudge and Hunt announced a review into the the security of Medicare online.
The
government has still not announced how the breach occurred. The review’s final report is due by 30
September. The government
was warned in 2014 in a report from the auditor-general’s
department that Medicare data security procedures did not fully comply with
mandatory information security requirements.
Should be interesting to see who reacts (and how) when all
of this data is released.
Ben Hancock reports:
Civil liberties advocates scored
a win at the California Supreme Court on Thursday with a unanimous ruling
that data gathered by police license plate readers are not generally exempt
from public disclosure under state law.
The American Civil Liberties
Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and various news organizations have
sought data collected by automated license plate readers (ALPRs) to raise
awareness about how much data is collected by police on innocent civilians.
Read more on The
Recorder.
Social Media can be useful? Who knew?
After Harvey, Small Social Networks Prove Their Might
… In the aftermath
of Hurricane Harvey — which has left thousands seeking shelter — small, locally
oriented social networks like Zello are showing their strength as organizing
tools. Though social networks are an imperfect
substitute for rescue infrastructure, a listen into Zello, or a peek into
Nextdoor (where neighbors are working to inform and help each other), or even a
visit to Harvey-related Facebook groups shows why people are relying on these
networks. They are focused and intensely
local, and put critical information in front of the right audiences quickly
with little distraction or noise.
Isn’t this how deliveries were made before things like
postal services? Are there more start-up
potentials in Ye Olde Way of doing other things?
Same-day delivery startup Deliv expands to 1,400 cities,
rivalling Amazon’s Prime Now
As Amazon continues to expand its retail muscle beyond its
own e-commerce portal, there’s been some activity among startups and businesses
hoping to develop systems that can help others compete better with it. Deliv,
a “crowdsourced” same-day delivery startup that currently partners with some
4,000 retailers to help them offer same-day delivery services to rival those of
Amazon, today announced that it has expanded its service to 33 markets and
1,400 cities, up from 19 markets previously.
… Deliv squarely
addresses one aspect of the commerce retail chain: getting delivery of goods
purchase online, and getting them quickly — a service and expectation that has
become a norm for many in today’s on-demand world.
“Same day delivery is quickly becoming table stakes across
every retail segment. With Deliv,
retailers can offer their customers that same exceptional level customer experience
without the need to invest in their own asset-based delivery fleet,” said
Daphne Carmeli, CEO and founder of Deliv, in a statement.
Mark wishes to remind you that he is not running for
President in 2020.
Mark Zuckerberg calls on Trump to protect ‘dreamers’ from
immigration reforms
Facebook
CEO Mark Zuckerberg and
other tech executives are calling on President Donald Trump to preserve the
rights of "dreamers" under any immigration reform plan.
… In an open letter published
Thursday, the executives urged the president to retain the policy, saying that
the U.S. economy would lose hundreds of billions of dollars if workers and
students currently protected by DACA were faced with deportation.
I’ll bet most of my students don’t know these tricks. (Or that they have a middle button on their two
button mouse.)
Next Quarter, I’m teaching Spreadsheets again.
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