...percent are repeat offenses among employees, up from 21 percent in the previous quarter. 36.6 percent of breaches were due to external hacking, nearly double that of Q1. 30.99 percent were due to insiders, either through deliberate wrongdoing (theft) or insider error. Insider wrongdoing was led by family members snooping on other family members’ records. Not Russians, Chinese, NoKos, or Bulgarians bashing about. In contrast to Q1, where the biggest data breach was a network hack of an Oklahoma-based health network (reportedly the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences), compromising nearly 280,000 records, Q2’s Big Breach was a physical... Continue Reading
Search Results for hacking
Healthcare cybersecurity breaches multiply like measles as far away as Singapore. Is it a matter of time before hacking kills someone?
Even if you are the Prime Minister of Singapore, you can be hacked. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong joined 1.5 million of his fellow Singaporeans in what they have termed an unprecedented data breach of SingHealth, considered to be a world model. There are the usual state actor suspects: Russians, Chinese–and North Koreans–starting less than two weeks (27 June) after hosting the meeting between President Donald Trump and Maximum Leader Kim Jong Un. (That is hardly a gracious thank you if it’s them (s/o). POLITICO Morning eHealth reported on Monday 23 July. What’s happened since: Singapore banks have been instructed... Continue Reading
The Theranos Story, ch. 49: CEO Holmes reportedly raising funds for a new company–and feeling like Joan of Arc
...serving as a public company director or officer for 10 years, and still fighting civil lawsuits–is raising fresh funds for a new venture. Your eyes did not fool you. Theranos was a Dogpile of Deceit. From hacking standard Siemens blood testing machines to work with tiny samples, falsifying test results, faking up the Edison test machine, to company financials, it was one lie on the other, chronicled for our Readers in nearly 50 chapters and multiple references. Mr. Carreyrou was asked by former Timesman and Vanity Fair reporter Nick Bilton whether, in this unmistakable pattern, Ms. Holmes was a sociopath.... Continue Reading
Events roundup: The King’s Fund, SEHTA, RSM, VR4REHAB, Parks Associates, HealthIMPACT, Telemedicine SPS
...media partner of the Digital Health Congress. Hacking for Solutions is the prior week (4-5 July). It’s part of the three-year VR4REHAB project, with partners including The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and Teesside University, with the objective of developing new VR applications that promote better function and outcomes for patients and children with disabilities. Find out more on the UK Hackathon here and the international program here. At Brunel University London, Department of Clinical Sciences, Mary Seacole Building, Kingston Lane. SEHTA’s 2018 AGM & Annual Conference is 13 June at the Mary Sumner House, 24 Tufton Street, London.... Continue Reading
WannaCry’s anniversary: have we learned our malware and cybersecurity lessons?
Hard to believe that WannaCry, and the damage this malware wreaked worldwide, was but a year ago. Two months later, there was Petya/NotPetya. We’ve had hacking and ransomware eruptions regularly, the latest being the slo-mo malware devised by the Orangeworm hackers. What WannaCry and Petya/NotPetya had in common, besides cyberdamage, was they were developed by state actors or hackers with state support (North Korea and–suspected–Russia and/or Ukraine). The NHS managed to evade Petya, which was fortunate as they were still repairing damage from WannaCry, which initially was reported to affect 20 percent of NHS England trusts. The final count was... Continue Reading
Breached healthcare records down 72% but incident numbers steady. Then there’s MyFitnessPal’s 150 million…
...major annual Verizon report. Healthcare Informatics Protenus’ February report, while continuing the reduction trend, had its share of hacking and insider incidents. Of the 39 incidents in their report affecting over 348,000 records, insider actions such as the misuse of system credentials accounted for 51 percent of breached records while hacks were 46 percent, with the majority involving ransomware or malware. Hacking as a cause hasn’t disappeared but perhaps has shifted to easier targets. UnderArmour’s MyFitnessPal delivers another breach blow. Late last month, the company revealed that 150 million user records were hacked in February. The MyFitnessPal mobile app tracks... Continue Reading
Updated–Rounding up this week’s news: VA budget, Shulkin’s troubles, ATA’s new CEO, Allscripts’ wheeling-dealing, Roche buys Flatiron, Nokia out of health?, NHS Carillioning?
...clarified, the freeze is expected to be lifted within a month. POLITICO Where the trouble started for Dr. Shulkin was in the findings of a spending audit by the VA’s Inspector General’s Office of an official European trip to Copenhagen and London which included unreimbursed travel by Mrs. Shulkin and free tickets to Wimbledon, at least partly justified by a doctored email. This has led to the early retirement of the VA Chief of Staff Vivieca Wright Simpson and also an investigation of hacking into Wright Simpson’s email. It also appears that some political appointees in the VA are being... Continue Reading
Hacking, insider actions 81 percent of healthcare data breaches: Protenus
Healthcare data security company Protenus’ monthly Breach Barometer always contains interesting–and somewhat discouraging–surprises. August’s report topped July’s for the number of patients affected, with 674,000 patients involved in 33 incidents. Over 54 percent of breaches (N=18) were due to hacking (five incidents were attributed to ransomware), with over 27 percent (N=9) were from insider error (the main cause) or wrongdoing–over 81 percent in total. The remainder were due to loss, theft, or ‘unknown’. Another interesting finding was that discoveries of hacking are relatively quick at an average of 26 days from start to finish, due to the disruption they create,... Continue Reading
Beyond crowdfunding–startup funding through blockchain cryptocurrency, smart contracts
Bitcoin + Smart Contracts or Bust! A surprise to this Editor was that Bitcoin (on 14 Aug an eye-blinking $4,400) has a host of ‘currency token’ competitors–Ethereum‘s Ether ($286), DCorp‘s DRP, and others in the wings waiting for their initial coin offerings (ICOs). These cryptocurrencies, while still hard to use (don’t try to shop for groceries with them), are demonstrating credible, real-world value despite shady uses in hacking. The tech behind currency tokens, blockchain, with its distributed data ledger also offers another more intriguing development beyond what this Editor has noted in healthcare [TTA 16 July 16, 5 Apr]–smart contracts.... Continue Reading
Some reflections on ATA and a future CEO–your ‘nominations’ wanted!
...capture were the future and mostly theory. We went through the whiz-bang gadget phase, where every new one was going to change healthcare as we know it. Now we are past the buzzy cocktail party hangover into trying to make it work. We are in 2.0 and 3.0 where it’s all about integration of telemedicine and telehealth into patient engagement, behavior change, data analytics, predictive care, genomics, improving life for the aging and chronically ill population, managing the tsunami of patient data for better outcomes, smart pills, hacking and data security, EHRs, ACOs, meeting standards such as MACRA…and heavy engagement... Continue Reading
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