data encryption

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A Ransomware Epidemic And An Overdue National Health IT Safety Center

Dean Sittig and Hardeep Singh | Health Affairs Blog | July 29, 2016

A rapid increase in computerization of health care organizations (HCOs) around the world has raised their profile as lucrative targets for cyber-criminals. Recently there has been a spate of high-profile ransomware attacks involving hospitals’ electronic health record (EHR) data.Briefly, ransomware attacks commonly start when a user is conned into clicking an internet link or opening a malicious email attachment. Malware, or software that is intended to damage or disable the computer, is then downloaded and rapidly encrypts data on that computer and attempts to reach out to other computers on the same network to encrypt data on those computers as well; consequently, all encrypted data is inaccessible...

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Amazon May Be Going Head-to-Head with Microsoft in Healthcare

Mary Jo Foley | ZDNet | July 27, 2017

In the doorway of a low-ceilinged room with harsh strip lighting, Klaid Magi is looking tired. Behind him, the mess suggests this has not been a standard day at the office. The bins are overflowing with empty Coke cans, the desks are covered in snack wrappers, and the room probably smelled a whole lot fresher a few hours earlier. Magi's team, a small band of about two dozen now-weary security experts, wander between the rows of PCs and whiteboards scrawled with notes, gradually recovering from a day spent as the last defense of a tiny nation against a massive cyberattack...

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Deepstream: an Open-source Server for Building Realtime Apps

Wolfram Hempel | SitePoint | November 25, 2016

Realtime apps are getting really popular, but they’re also hard to build. Wolfram Hempel introduces deepstream, an open-source server he co-founded to make data-sync, request-response and publish-subscribe a whole lot easier. Realtime is eating the world! Or at least it’s taking bigger and bigger bites. Whether it’s collaborative editing in Google Docs, chatting via Facebook messenger, financial trading on the move, IoT controls, live dashboards or multiplayer gaming — users are increasingly expecting to see changes happen as they happen...

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FBI Agent to CHIME Attendees: The Cybersecurity Environment Is Becoming More Dangerous

Mark Hagland | Healthcare Informatics | August 15, 2016

The level of cybersecurity threat is growing exponentially in healthcare right now, but there are some very clear strategies that the leaders of patient care organizations can and should do in order to fight back. That was the core of the message that Timothy J. Wallach, a supervisory special agent in the Cyber Task Force in the Seattle Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) told attendees Monday morning at the CHIME/AEHIS LEAD Forum Event, being held at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront in Seattle...

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Hackers Are Coming for Your Healthcare Records -- Here’s Why

Lucas Mearian | Computer World | June 30, 2016

Data stolen from a bank quickly becomes useless once the breach is discovered and passcodes are changed. But data from the healthcare industry, which includes both personal identities and medical histories, can live a lifetime. Cyberattacks will cost hospitals more than $305 billion over the next five years and one in 13 patients will have their data compromised by a hack, according to industry consultancy Accenture. And a study by the Brookings Institution predicts that one in four data breaches this year will hit the healthcare industry...

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Halamka on the JASON Report

On 4/09/2014, AHRQ released the JASON report, facilitated by Mitre. JASON is an independent group of scientists who advise the United States government on matters of science and technology. The intent of the report is to make recommendations for a new healthcare IT architecture to accelerate interoperability. Read More »

Halamka Says We Can and Must Improve Healthcare Management

As a physician and CIO, I’m quick to spot inefficiencies in healthcare workflow.  More importantly, as the care navigator for my family, I have extensive firsthand experience with patient facing processes. My wife’s cancer treatment, my father’s end of life care, and my own recent primary hypertension diagnosis taught me how we can do better. Last week, when my wife received a rejection in coverage letter from Harvard Pilgrim/Caremark, it highlighted the imperative we have to improve care management workflow in the US. Since completing her estrogen positive, progesterone positive, HER2 negative breast cancer treatment in 2012 (chemotherapy, surgery, radiation), she’s been maintained on depot lupron and tamoxifen to suppress estrogen...

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Healthcare Data Breach Costs Still Highest Among Industries

Elizabeth Snell | Health IT Security | June 15, 2016

The healthcare industry is no stranger to data breaches, and as technology continues to evolve, covered entities and their business associates need to be especially vigilant when it comes to keeping patient data secure. A healthcare data breach is also much more likely to cause significant financial damage than security incidents in other sectors, according to a recent study...

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How Open Source Mobile Health Technology Aided Ebola Response

Alyssa Wood | TechTarget | June 6, 2016

When the Ebola epidemic spread across West Africa in early 2014, organizations around the world sent thousands of health workers to combat the outbreak alongside local medical personnel and volunteers. Over the past two years, many of these teams have seen the benefits of using mobile health technology for disaster response. Some of the most important tasks in responding to a healthcare disaster are collecting, analyzing, sharing and acting upon data gleaned from patients. That was one job of Partners in Health (PIH), a nonprofit based in Boston, which worked in the affected countries to train medical staff, provide patient care, and survey patients and their families.

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Linux 2017: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols | ZD Net | January 4, 2017

In 2016, Linux turned 25. When it began, it was a student project. Today, Linux runs everything. From smartphones to supercomputers to web servers to clouds to the car, it's all Linux, all the time. Even the one exception, the end-user, is moving to Linux. Android is now the most popular end-user opearating system. In addition, Chromebooks are becoming more popular. Indeed, even traditional Linux desktops such as Fedora, openSUSE, Mint, and Ubuntu are finally gaining traction. Heck, my TechRepublic Linux buddy Jack Wallen even predicts that "Linux [desktop] market share will finally breach the 5-percent mark"...

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McAfee Labs Threats Predictions Report Previews Cyber Threats for 2017 and Beyond

Press Release | McAfee Labs, Intel Security | November 29, 2016

Intel® Security today released its McAfee Labs 2017 Threats Predictions Report, which identifies 14 threat trends to watch in 2017, the most critical developments to watch for in cloud security and the Internet of Things (IoT) security, and the six most difficult-to-solve challenges facing the cybersecurity industry. The report reflects the informed opinions of 31 Intel Security thought leaders. It examines current trends in cybercrime and makes predictions about what the future may hold for organizations working to take advantage of new technologies to both advance their businesses and provide better security protection...

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Medical Superbugs: Two German Hospitals Hit with Ransomware

John Leyden | The Register | February 26, 2016

At least two hospitals in Germany have come under attack from ransomware, according to local reports. The alarming incidents follow similar ransomware problems at the US Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center. Both the Lukas Hospital in Germany's western city of Neuss and the Klinikum Arnsberg hospital in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia were attacked by file encrypting ransomware, Deutsche Welle reports...

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Rural Indian Villages Are About to Get Lifesaving Treatment Through an App

Selena Larson | CNN | October 3, 2016

Intelehealth, founded by students at Johns Hopkins University, makes an app that lets health workers in rural communities act as a proxy for doctors who are unable to work in underserved areas themselves. India has just one doctor for every 1,700 people, and while 70% of the population is in rural areas, about 60% of the healthcare infrastructure is in cities. Health workers in remote areas are trained on very basic care -- they can't offer tests or consults on things like diabetes or asthma, according toIntelehealth founder and CEO Neha Goel.

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Why Healthcare Data Security, Compliance Issues Go Untreated

Dave Brunswick | Health IT Security | August 9, 2016

Secure managed file transfer solutions can be beneficial to covered entities as they work to overcome healthcare data security and compliance issues. If there ever was a pulse of healthcare operations, it’s data. From patient enrollment forms, electronic health records, and health insurance information, the amount of electronic data flowing through the medical community increases every day. With that, healthcare data security must also be a top priority...

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Your Money or Your PHI: HHS Issues New Guidance on Ransomware

Jocelyn Samuels | HHS Blog | July 11, 2016

To help health care entities better understand and respond to the threat of ransomware, the HHS Office for Civil Rights has released new HIPAA guidance. One of the biggest current threats to health information privacy is the serious compromise of the integrity and availability of data caused by malicious cyber-attacks on electronic health information systems, such as through ransomware. The FBI has reported an increase in ransomware attacks and media have reported a number of ransomware attacks on hospitals...

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