A star team or a team of stars
Pressure does not test character, it reveals it
Nothing good happens after 12 am
Biden: I won’t give Israel offensive weapons to attack in populated parts of Rafah Times of Israel. The deck: “Unprecedentedly blunt threat marks stunning shift from president, who long rejected conditioning aid to Israel; official says US still committed to freeing hostages. Commentary
Electile dysfunction causes outbreak of performance politics in Commons Guardian
MICROBIOME NEWS: Researchers discover compounds produced by gut bacteria that can treat inflammation
Highlights on cyber security issues, May 4, 2024– Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few.
On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness.
Six highlights from this week: 9 Disturbing Stories From People Who Say They Found Cameras in Their Airbnb; Stop Using Your Face or Thumb to Unlock Your Phone; How Netflix and Other Streaming Services Charge You Forever; Kaiser gave 13.4M people’s data to Microsoft, others; Huawei has been investing in US research despite being banned; and How Netflix and Other Streaming Services Charge You Forever.
Healthcare Cyberattack and UnitedHealth Group’s Response, May 1, 2024 – “This morning the Finance Committee examines the Change Healthcare hack that nearly brought the nation’s health care system to a standstill six weeks ago. Joining the committee is Andrew Witty, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group, which owns Change Healthcare. I’ll put things in perspective.
Last year, UHG generated $324 billion in revenue, making it the 5th largest company in the U.S. Overall, the company touches 152 million individuals across all lines of business – insurance, physician practice, home health, and pharmacy. With its profits, UHG has purchased dozens of other health care companies and is the largest purchaser of physician practices.
This corporation is a health care leviathan. I believe the bigger the company, the bigger the responsibility to protect its systems from hackers. UHG was a big target long before it was hacked. The FBI says that the health care industry is the number one target of ransomware. It’s obvious why.
Change Healthcare processes roughly 15 billion health care transactions annually, and a third of Americans’ patient records pass through its digital doors. Change specializes in moving patient data from doctor’s office to doctor’s office, or to and from your insurance company.
That means medical bills that are chock full of sensitive diagnoses, treatments, and medical histories that reveal everything from to abortions to mental health disorders to diagnosis of cancer to sexually transmitted infections. Military personnel are included in this data. Leaving this sensitive patient information vulnerable to hackers, whether criminals or a foreign government, is a clear national security threat. I don’t think it’s a stretch the impact here rivals the 2015 hack of government personnel data from the Office of Personnel Management, which the FBI called a “treasure trove” of counterintelligence information for foreign intelligence services..”
