by medicaltechont | Dec 13, 2014 | Technology
Microsoft Appoints Itself Sheriff of the Internet
“Microsoft contends it seized domains to stop distribution of two widely used malware tools”
It was 7 o’clock in the morning when the knocking on Dan Durrer’s front door woke him up. His dog started barking, and Durrer thought he was getting an early morning package. But when he opened the door, he wasn’t greeted by the FedEx man. He was face-to-face with a process server, a messenger from the courts, who handed him a stack of legal documents—three inches thick. Somewhere in that stack—buried in all the legalese—was the news that Microsoft had taken control of his company, but Durrer didn’t have time to read it. Almost immediately, his pager lit up with messages saying the company’s internet services had stopped working.
For the past 15 years, Durrer has worked as the CEO of a small internet service provider called No-IP. Based on Reno, Nevada, the 16-person company offers a special kind of Domain Name System service, or DNS, for consumers and small businesses, letting them reliably connect to computers whose IP addresses happen to change from time to time. It’s used by geeks obsessed with online security, fretful parents monitoring nanny cams in their toddler’s bedrooms, and retailers who want remote access to their cash registers. But it’s also used by criminals as a way of maintaining malicious networks of hacked computers across the internet, even if the cops try to bring them down.
Read more.
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by medicaltechont | Nov 1, 2014 | Technology
Microsoft has launched a new platform dubbed Microsoft Health and a band that’s designed to track your health data and serve out insights. Microsoft Health also comes out of the gate with Android, iOS and Jawbone, MapMyFitness, MyFitnessPal and Runkeeper compatibility, but the real win may be in the cloud.
If Microsoft’s health effort and wearable sounds familiar that’s because the tech titans are all deploying similar efforts. Apple has its HealthKit effort—to be complemented by Apple Watch in early 2015—that has a long list of app and wearable partners sans Fitbit. Google Fit is another effort to aggregate the health data being tracked by a bevy of wearable devices and apps.
Read more online at ZDNET
by medicaltechont | May 24, 2014 | Cloud, EHR, Ontario, Privacy, Software, Technology, The Internet
Is your cloud (online web-based) application vulnerable to hackers? Do you even know if the OpenSSL security flaw and bug affected your important data? Are you paying attention to your investment? Or do you even care?
With many moving full steam ahead with cloud-based solutions, recent developments have casted a slight shadow on the security of patient data and how much risk a medical practitioner is willing to take with personal medical information in the cloud.
When you visit the doctor, nurse practitioner or other health professionals there is a trust developed; whereby your confidentiality is respected and observed. As a patient you assume that all efforts are taken to uphold that trust. You assume that your personal medical data is secure from the prying eyes of others. However do you really know if your personal information is safe? It’s amazing to know that so many regular individuals assume, in Canada, that their personal information, located within a Doctor’s office, is 100% safe and secure. But what happens if they find out that there was a breach in security? What happens if a patient came to view results of something extremely important, only available within your EMR or medical software, and your “Internet” connection is down? What do you tell the patient? Are you certain that your medical information is safe?
Read: Cisco and Heartbleed, A Class Action Lawsuit In The Making (Seeking Alpha)
Although the term “online web based billing software” is the new buzz word, not all solutions have to be cloud-based. Many use terms like “bill from anywhere“, or “use any web-browser“, yet there are alternatives, which still allow you to be in control or your data. Many companies will never tell you how often their networks are down. Fear is used scare individuals into thinking that their equipment is safe with their company. “ 99% up-time“, is the standard default line for most online and cloud providers. However, as a medical professional, you assume the risk to your reputation and medical license. Patients believe that “you” and your medical practice are in trust of their personal medical and critical information. We all know, once trust is broken it is often difficult to repair.
Good luck trying to blame your technical problems on others when your cloud application is down (offline), your web-based provider was hacked (losing personal patient information) or even have disappeared with your data (bankrupted). Some comments from online vendors are shown below.
” Sorry about that folks, someone literally drove over our Internet connection this morning and ripped it from the pole. Everything restored.”
“The six-hour outage of Cerner’s network late last month has raised fresh concerns about cloud hosting of patient records.”
“ Target ignored its own alarms—and turned its customers into victims of an epic hack“(Bloomberg Businessweek)
“EBay initially believed user data safe after cyberattack“(Toronto Sun)
If your medical patient records are in the cloud ask yourself the following questions.
- Who actually has your data?
- Where, on planet Earth literally, is your data located?
- Are their cloud servers in Canada? The U.S.? Overseas? Or in an undesirable location in another country?
- If your patient data is in a foreign country what laws govern access to that information?
- Who is actually looking at your entrusted patient data?
- What is the risk and liability to your medical practice?
When choosing a vendor, for your medical software, never assume that the data within their office. Ask questions, first and never assume. Servers could be anywhere.
“If the cloud that hosts your data has servers in a foreign country, the laws of that foreign country may govern your data when stored in that server.”
Think of a more balanced approach to medical file management and health records. There are options to mobility that will not compromise your medical data. Just because it looks cheap, bleeding edge and downright “cool”, does it make it the best solution for you?
You can survive without your Facebook page, even Microsoft Word online for a while, but what about your medical records, lab reports and more; in relation to your office, or hospital? Under some certifications and requirements today EMR is considered a medical device; which must operate and function in a specific manner. If medical records and software were like a pace-maker, how much risk would you take?
by medicaltechont | May 23, 2014 | Technology, The Internet
Regulatory trouble is brewing for eBay on both sides of the Atlantic, with watchdogs making plans to investigate how a recent security breach occurred.
eBay is facing a possible European investigation into the breach of its systems, following the launch of a joint probe by three US states into how the auction company handles security.
Details compromised in the breach, which were made public earlier this week included customers’ names, encrypted passwords, email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth. eBay hasn’t said how many of its more than 145 million customers’ details were compromised, however.
Read more:
http://www.zdnet.com/uk/uks-data-watchdog-eyes-probe-into-ebays-very-serious-breach-7000029811/
by medicaltechont | Apr 21, 2014 | Canada, Security, Technology, United States
Thousands of security breaches may be undetectable, experts say
Hospitals and providers’ online networks—including email accounts, electronic health records (EHRs), and remote monitoring devices—may be vulnerable to a destructive “Heartbleed” computer bug, according to security experts.
Breaches have compromised at least 21M patients’ records since 2009
A Google engineer and another security team last week discovered the bug and found that it infiltrates systems through a widely used Web encryption program known as OpenSSL; websites such as Amazon and Google use the program. After a breach, hackers may be able to get sensitive information from email servers, laptops, mobile phones, and security firewalls, experts say.
“[T]his is huge…it’s servers, it’s appliances, it’s devices,” says CynergisTek CEO Mac McMillan, adding that the bug has been around for about two years and experts do not know how many breaches may have already happened. Government agencies and private companies are rushing to fix any vulnerabilities, but breaches may not be detected for a long time, if at all.
“It’s going to be a long, long time before they truly understand the scope of this,” says McMillan.
CEO of CloudFlare Matthew Prince called Heartbleed “the worst bug the Internet has ever seen,” adding “[i]f a week from now we hear criminals spoofed a massive number of accounts of financial institutions, it won’t surprise me.”
At this point, it is also unclear if the nation’s health care providers are especially vulnerable. For example, Web networks that rely on two- or three-factor password authentication should be safe, McMillan says.
But even health groups that do not rely on OpenSSL should be worried about ramifications of the massive breach, according to David Harlow, principal of health care law Harlow Group.
