Computer Security and Hospitals

After visiting a hospital for the past 20 hours or so I noticed some of the blaring security issues which are probably just overlooked. The most notable issue, which is probably the most serious as well, is the fact that the nurses are rolling carts with computers to scan and enter patient information. Now the fact that they nurses have portable stations is not too much of an issue; its the fact that these stations can access all patient information and they are running Windows XP. While the extended support date is through April 8, 2014 there are a number of security issues that can allow anyone who is really wanting to get access to the system inside. Hopefully, they are planning to do a full upgrade to a newer operating system within the next year. But who knows.... The fact that patient records could possibly be accessed is troublesome. How many other doctors offices they are not big hospitals are using antiquated systems that most likely are not patched correctly or just outdated? While hospitals not only host a lot of patient information, they are often linked to other doctors offices or specialty facilites so that they can easily share patient information. While privacy about health issues has recieved a fair amount of attention, are these HIPAA regulations being followed as they are truely intended?

A Very Serious Dialtone

The aftermath of Hurricane Sandy has brought to my attention and many others, that we have become very dependent on technology. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but when the natural disasters strike, do we know how to do anything? Ten years ago, most people could rattle off a few phone numbers if they needed to. 15 years ago, most people could tell you a lot of numbers, or at least had them written down in a location they could get to. Now, most people do not remember more than one or two phone numbers, and if they lose their cell phone they are stuck. That is until they get on facebook and have people send them their phone numbers. But if the power is out and there is no way to access the internet, most people do not have a battery powered radio to find out emergency information. In a country where we can have backup generators to watch every football game as we tailgate in the parking lot of the Georia Dome; most people are not truly prepared for a minor natural disaster that takes out power for a few days.

Firewalls...only YOU can prevent viruses.

It is common knowledge that personal computers and work computers should run some type of firewall. Windows Firewall is now implemented with all Windows Operating System releases. It does not have to be used, but it is there. For most users it will be enabled when Windows 7 is installed unless the user decides not to use it. It is a safe a practical way to make sure your computer has some sort of protection from outside sources if you plan to connect to the Internet. And let's face it, you plan on connecting to the Internet. AVG has a free version of their excellent firewall which is top notch as well. No matter what you choose, choose something. For most people, the Internet seems harmless, but in actuality the Internet is an access point for everyone in the world to put information on your computer. Whether it is a cookie, or download of an email attachment, information is put on your computer each time you connect to the Internet. Do you really think about the thousands of connection attempts that are being made even as you read this post? Most people do not. The sheer number of outbound and incoming requests from web browsing and other programs that are run on a normal computer increases as more programs connect to the Internet to get updates or report data. How do you know if all of these connections are necessary or even wanted. It is very difficult to descern which items are actually harmful to your computer. Bottom line, make life easier and avoid a potential virus or rootkit, use a firewall.

Backing Up the Back Ups

As a standard practice now, IT professionals are backing up their company data. Some of these people are also backing up their own personal data. People who are not even associated with IT and have had some kind of failure also know about making backups. Now actually doing that is another question. This post is really about making backups. Most people are aware that it is a good idea. The problem comes when it is time to use those backups. If something bad has happened and you need to use the back up, what happens if the backup is no good? Recently I have tried to access some information from a phone backup. Normally messages on a phone are no big deal, but if they are needed for say some legal purpose, what happens if you can not view what has been backed up. If the backup is bad and never tested, it is just the same as not doing a backup at all. The next step in making sure we save all those important things seems like it will be in the cloud; but this basically makes you sign all your rights to security of data away. This is just not practical for most businesses. So now we must figure out an effective way to not only backup our systems and phones. But make sure are backups will work. Making sure that what we back up our Backups.

Security In An Insecure World

As the Holiday season approaches, people begin to prepare to buy numerous things they would not normally purchase. They will make these purchases in malls, department stores, walmarts, kmarts, targets, and more and more frequently the Internet. As billions of extra transactions are beginning to take place, how do the credit card companies track for fraudulent activity. It is easy to say that most people would notice an item on a bank or credit card statement that did not fit their spending habits at all. But during the holiday season, people often shop at places that they would not regularly shop at, and spend more money then they would normally spend. In attempts to secure ourselves we have bought shredders to shred that annoying junk mail and even paid Lifelock to watch for our identities to pop up where they shouldn't. Even with taking these measures, are we really secure? How many times have you handed a waiter your credit card while they went and swiped it out of your view? It does not take much to have something which we think is secure, turned into something completely insecure. After we see that someone has made a fraudulent charge on our credit card, we politely call our bank or credit card company and have the charges removed. But all that money has to get accounted for, and not all of the thieves are caught, much less have goods returned or fully replaced. There is an inherent cost to all of these things. The question is, can we really make things as secure as we seem to think they are?

The Computer In Your Pants

Its no secret that most of us walk around with a smartphone in our pockets. This advanced computing device has become the lifeblood of most of the world. No smartphone often means no business, or at least very limited business. My friend lost his phone over the weekend and was instantly lost as to what to do. This coveted phone was set up to watch all the SEC football games on Saturday, listen to the Falcons on Sunday and some minor things in between. Such as making phone calls and texting friends. With no phone, he was forced to contact friends through Facebook on a laptop. Facebook has an inherent delay, and most people cant flip open there laptop to check things no matter what their location. These computers (smartphones) also give us directions and allow us to keep our lives organized with any number of apps. 10 years ago, RIM's blackberry was a pager with a couple of lines to view text. Now they tell you who else is online, where they are, and what the weather is in whatever city they may be. Of course I expect smartphone technology to continue to increase for the foreseeable future, but what about the eventual literal computer in your pants. As technology advances I suspect smart threads in our clothes will being to provide information to us on a whole different scale. E-textiles or smart fibers, which are made of semiconducting materials are already being made at universities such as Virginia Tech. I wonder how smart our clothes will become in the next twenty or thirty years.

Computers and Cars

Over the weekend I experienced some techinical difficulties with my car. The simple answer was the alternator was bad, but the car cut off because the car's computer did not get enough power to keep telling the engine how to idle at a stop light. The computer in the car not only counts the mileage and calculates miles per gallon with some extremely weird algorithm, it reads all the sensors on the car and adjust things such as the radiator fan being on, how high to idle the car as it sits and detection of wheelspin and turning on brakes. Some people say the cars computers do too much, when it comes to actually applying brakes to certain wheels to prevent wheelspin or lockup. Modern cars are a far cry from forty years ago when most everything was done mechanically. This advance in technology has made mechanics more of a diagnostic reader then pure mechanic of years past. Cars will tell any problems or errors that are going on with it sensors and help take out the guess work when a car doesnt want to start up. This morning I had to get a $150 key made because the transponder in the key tells the cars computer that it is ok to start up. Finger print technology used to open cars is already out, what will be the next? Perhaps using advanced biometrics to program cars to their owners. No need for a key if the car recognizes the driver by some combination of scans. I wonder what will be done 40 years from now.