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This weekly blog is to explore the larger issues around Digital Health, data security, data privacy, AI / ML. technology, social media and related matters.
I will also try to highlight ADHA Propaganda when I come upon it.
Just so we keep count, the latest Notes from the ADHA Board are dated 6 December, 2018! Secrecy unconstrained! This is really the behaviour of a federal public agency gone rogue – and it just goes on! When you read this it will be over 16 months of radio silence, and worse, while the CEO, COO and the Chief of Staff have gone, still no change. I wonder will things improve at some point, given the acting CEO seems not to care, as well. I think it is fair to assume no change will come in the foreseeable future.
Note: Appearance here is not to suggest I see any credibility or value in what follows. I will leave it to the reader to decide what is worthwhile and what is not! The point is to let people know what is being said / published that I have come upon.
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Countering foreign interference and social media misinformation in Australia
DFAT, the Attorney-General's Department, and the AEC have all highlighted what measures are in place to curb trolls from spreading misinformation across social media.
The Select Committee on Foreign Interference through Social Media was in December stood up to inquire into, and report on, the risk posed to Australia's democracy by foreign interference through social media.
The inquiry, which closed for submissions earlier this month, particularly references: How the use of social media can undermine Australia's democracy and values, including the spread of misinformation; responses to mitigate the risk posed to Australia's democracy and values, including by the Australian government and social media platforms; international policy responses to cyber-enabled foreign interference and misinformation; the extent of compliance with Australian laws; and any related matters.
The establishment of the committee followed a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) that reviewed 97 national elections and 37 referendums and identified foreign interference in 20 countries including Australia.
The Australian government has a handful of initiatives in place that it believes will deter trolls from interfering with the nation's democracy and collective "values".
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Australian Privacy Commissioner offers advice on staff privacy amid COVID-19
Employers given a little reminder that their Privacy Act obligations still apply, even in a global pandemic.
By Asha Barbaschow | March 19, 2020 -- 04:07 GMT (15:07 AEDT) | Topic: Security
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has asked employers across the country to be mindful of their obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 when handling information related to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.
The OAIC said that while it appreciates the unprecedented challenges employers are facing to address the spread of the virus, they still have obligations to maintain a safe workplace for staff and visitors and handle personal information appropriately.
Personal information should be used or disclosed on a need-to-know basis, the OAIC said, adding that only the minimum amount of personal information "reasonably necessary" to prevent or manage COVID-19 should be collected, used, or disclosed.
It asked employers to consider taking steps to notify staff of how their personal information will be handled in responding to any potential or confirmed case of COVID-19 , and ensure reasonable steps are in place to keep personal information secure, including where employees are working remotely.
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My Health Record
My Health Record is a secure online summary of an individual’s key health information.
ADHA Propaganda
When you have a My Health Record, your health information can be viewed securely online, from anywhere, at any time – even if you move or travel interstate. You can access your health information from any computer or device that’s connected to the internet.
Record content can include a shared health summary, test results, hospital discharge summaries, prescribed medications, Medicare and PBS information and immunisation history.
Individuals have the ability to choose to upload notes about themselves, including information about allergies or current medications and advance care plans.
As the owner of your My Health Record, you may set up access restrictions on your My Health Record if you wish.
At Ballarat Health Services, treating clinicians may access your My Health Record (if you have one) via our BOSSnet Digital Medical Record. Access is only permitted for the purpose of providing care to you, as required by law. If restricted access has been set up on your My Health Record, you may be asked for your access code if you attend BHS.
BHS currently uploads discharge summaries and radiology reports to the My Health Record. If you do not wish for BHS to contribute documents to your My Health Record, please advise Health Information Services 5320 4227 or speak to your treating clinician.
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Friday, 13 March 2020 13:16
Privacy violations are a terrible thing, but so is the panic they sow
GUEST CONTRIBUTION by James Herrin VPN Reviews: In a world where pretty much every corporation, starting from Amazon and Google and to your local grocery store wants to know everything about you, it is inevitable that people become more mindful of their privacy and sore about its violations.
Undoubtedly, the length to which many companies go in pursuit of their customers’ private data should be treated very seriously. Not only the companies themselves often use this data in dangerous and irresponsible ways, but also they subject it to the threat of hacking. The bigger and the more detailed database a business has on its clients, the juicier the morsel is for data thieves.
All in all, the rising trend of people taking their privacy with a great deal of caution is a good thing.
But like all good things, it does require a certain amount of moderation not to become a mockery of itself – and it appears that too many privacy enthusiasts lack this moderation.
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CBA reveals screen scrapers double its customer fraud propensity
By Julian Bajkowski on Mar 20, 2020 6:55AM
Cites internal cyber security analytics.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has fired a broadside into widespread claims that the use of screen scraping isn’t boosting online banking fraud or hitting consumers, disclosing usually tightly held internal cyber security figures in response to questions from the fintech inquiry.
But it's not exactly shouting it from the rooftops.
A reply to questions on notice lodged with the Senate select committee on financial technology and regulatory technology published this week reveals Australia’s largest institution has calculated customers who have used data aggregators at least double their risk of copping a digital fraud hit.
The publication of the risk assessment is an eye-popper, not least because it is based on actual bank data rather than the usual rubbery figures and vague factoids regularly spun-up and bleated out by cyber security vendors and major consultancies spruiking their services.
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18 March 2020
Telehealth should be the rule, not the exception
The government is considering further expanding Medicare telehealth provisions to bring Australia closer to a “virtual-first” model – but to get the most benefit it will first need to expedite electronic prescription transfer, says one e-health expert.
In the Canadian province of Ontario, the presumption is shifting away from face-to-face appointments, according to The Toronto Star. After new billing codes were announced last week, most doctors will now triage patients on the phone or by videoconference to determine who needs to come in to their rooms.
Patients such as pregnant women, babies needing immunisations and older patients with chronic care needs will be seen in person, but most others will receive advice on how to care for themselves at home. Non-essential appointments for low-risk patients are being postponed.
Dr Nathan Pinskier, owner of five general practices and president of the General Practitioner Deputising Association, was involved in early roundtable meetings between the commonwealth government and the primary care sector.
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http://medicalrepublic.com.au/call-to-use-barcode-system-to-speed-scripts-to-isolated-patients/25963
19 March 2020
Call to use barcode system to speed scripts to isolated patients
Various GP groups, including the RACGP, are asking the state and federal governments to temporarily relax legislation around the current e-prescription infrastructure, to allow doctors to prescribe for COVID-19 and self-isolated patients using telehealth.
This would allow doctors to send their patients and electronically generated barcode, which the patients can send to a pharmacy to get scripts filled without leaving home.
Although the legislation for paper scripts has changed to allow electronic scripts to be used via a patient’s mobile phone, none of the patient management systems has done the development to allow their systems to use a new patient electronic token system and exchange being run by Medisecure and eRX.
Some of the major patient management system vendors have been asked to expedite their development amid the COVID-19 crisis, but development times and costs are impractical given the timelines to get a system up and running which would cater for home-bound patients.
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Posted on March 17, 2020
Digital Health Coordinator
About the organisation
The Sydney North Health Network (SNHN) works on behalf of the Commonwealth to improve health outcomes for patients by increasing the capability and capacity of the primary healthcare workforce to ensure patients receive the right care, in the right place at the right time.
About the role
The Digital Health Coordinator is responsible for the co-design, delivery and evaluation of projects within the Digital Health Team, with the aim of supporting better integration and co-ordination of care in line with SNHN’s digital health strategy.
Required experience, capabilities and qualifications
Essential:
- Ability to deliver training to a broad range of health professionals both in a face-to-face and digital training environment.
- Formal qualifications in a digital health technology or health related field or significant demonstrated experience within these fields.
- Knowledge and understanding of the Australian Primary Health care system.
- Demonstrated high level of communication skills, both written and oral
- Demonstrated ability to develop and maintain effective partnerships with relevant internal and external stakeholders.
- An understanding of behaviour change/change management principles and or demonstrated ability to influence change.
- Demonstrated ability to work autonomously, set project goals, prioritise tasks and troubleshoot, in order to achieve key objectives within designated timeframes.
- Commitment, adaptability and ability to persevere in challenging environments.
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Wednesday, 18 March 2020 12:48
Data literacy gap costing Australia $13.8 billion in lost productivity claim
There’s a data literacy gap in Australia and businesses’ failure to put employees at heart of data strategy is costing the country $13.8 billion in lost productivity, according to a new report.
According to the joint global report - The Human Impact of Data Literacy - from management consulting and professional services firm Accenture and analytics vendor Qlik, Australian businesses are failing to capitalise on the value of data due to the data skills gap - and while most organisations understand the “incredible opportunity” of data, a gap has emerged between their aspirations to be data-driven and the ability of their employees to create business value with data.
“Data is a gold mine that can fuel a culture of innovation and growth. However, Accenture and Qlik’s survey of 9,000 employees around the world, including 1,000 from Australia, found that when employees struggle to make sense of data, productivity and business value can be affected,” the report says.
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ASX carries on despite COVID-19 infection
The Australia stock exchange has advised all but "core" employees to work at home, says trading will continue normally
CSO Journalist, Computerworld | 17 March 2020 9:00 AEDT
Amid fears that the novel coronavirus could disrupt major stock exchanges around the world if employees become infected, the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) will continue to operate, even after receiving confirmation on Saturday that a Sydney-based employee had tested positive to COVID-19. ASX advised all staff to work remotely except for a “core group” of IT, operations and surveillance employees.
The remote working requirement applies to staff at ASX offices in Bridge Street and the Australian Liquidity Centre (ALC) in Sydney, as well as a secondary data centre, and interstate and overseas offices.
“The only exceptions are a core group of employees, identified as part of our BCP [business continuity plan], who will remain on ASX sites to manage ongoing market functions, mainly in technology, operations and surveillance areas. ASX is executing arrangements for which we have prepared,” the ASX said in a statement. “Our employees have the capacity to work remotely, which is a normal and regular part of ASX’s BCP and testing activity. Many already work flexibly and/or remotely from our various sites.”
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ACCC probe a privacy wake-up call
Whatever your industry, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn’t say that customer data is important for business. Yet few are realising its full potential – or properly managing the reputational risk it presents.
In our experience-driven economy, data is the most important ingredient for crafting deeply personalised experiences and delighting customers. Yet the companies most notorious for enabling this – including digital platforms Facebook and Google – are in the spotlight after an official inquiry was launched by the ACCC. The inquiry will examine how these platforms gather information about consumers and use it to target them with highly personalised advertising online.
Many marketers may worry these developments present a Catch-22 for their work. How can businesses meet these competing demands for more personalisation and more privacy?
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Health tech vital as coronavirus strikes
There are many lessons that can be drawn from the outbreak of the coronavirus — learned because in times of crisis we draw from adversity and build and safeguard for the future.
COVID-19 has left the world an unambiguous message: We must make changes to ensure we reduce if not eliminate the future cause of pandemics we have helped create.
As technology continues to evolve, a clear commitment is needed to ensure the viability and prosperity of the health tech sector while at the same time breaking down the challenges it faces.
The coronavirus will be a sobering experience for all Australians and as we battle to stave off a potential national health, economic and social crisis far worse than the Great Depression of 1920s and 30s, or the recession in the 80s, it is clear why we must continue to invest in the future of our health tech sector.
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Dodgy debt collector Panthera fined $500,000 for harassing ID fraud victims
By Julian Bajkowski on Mar 17, 2020 10:55AM
After ACCC extracts admissions of unconscionable conduct.
The Federal Court has slapped controversy-dogged debt collector Panthera with a $500,000 fine for unconscionable conduct over its serial harassment of identity theft victims who had fraudulent debts taken out in their name – and for then trashing their credit ratings.
The landmark action by Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is a big win for the regulator which is attempting to crack down on hardball tactics and the pursuit of so-called ‘debt in dispute’, where consumers are slugged with bills they do not owe, either through fraud or billing errors.
The ACCC took the action on behalf of three consumers with fake debts in their name who went through multiple steps to prove they had been defrauded, including contacting police and identity theft support services - only to be continually harassed.
The ACCC lodged the action in September last year with billers that sold debt to Panthera listed as AGL, Origin and Telstra. Telstra has since dumped the collection agency.
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Tuesday, 17 March 2020 00:36
A guide to working from home for employees
Some useful hints for surviving the virus scare as you abandon the office as a safe place to work.
Yesterday's article took a very 'business' view of the whole work from home scenario. Today, we will take a more personal view and offer a few strategies. For many people, the only "work from home" they ever did was to cover for an appointment (plumber, sick child etc.) and an actual working from home stint will be entirely foreign.
Further, the majority of people are extroverts - they need interaction with others, so there is a lot to compensate for when they're the only person to talk to. Some people are strongly self-driven, others prefer a team culture - typically we chose jobs and workplaces that match our preferences. If you need that contact, schedule regular 'shoot the breeze' sessions with similar co-workers over a mid-morning coffee or similar, or get out of the house to run errands or simply sit in the park for some sun and a random chat with a stranger.
So, with all that in mind, here's a plan.
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12 security tips for the ‘work from home’ enterprise
If you or your employees are working from home, you'll need this advice to secure your enterprise.
If you or your employees are working from home while our governments lurch awkwardly through the current crisis, then there are several security considerations that must be explored.
Your enterprise outside the wall
Enterprises must consider the consequences of working from home in terms of systems access, access to internal IT infrastructure, bandwidth costs and data repatriation.
What this means, basically, is that when your worker accesses your data and/or databases remotely, then the risk to that data grows.
While at normal times the risk is only between the server, internal network and end user machine, external working adds public internet, local networks and consumer-grade security systems to the risk mix.
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Managing requests for personal information about staff or students from a health authority during the COVID-19 crisis
Blog The Prescription
In the midst of the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation, the Commonwealth and State Governments are ‘working around the clock’ to try and contain the spread of the virus in Australia. In recent days we have seen schools shut for the day, entire corporate offices working from home, events cancelled, corporate travel bans (and an infamous toilet paper ‘shortage’).
Our Employment Safety & People team recently provided a practical guide to dealing with COVID-19 in the workplace.
In this article our education, data and privacy experts have partnered with our leading healthcare team to explain how to navigate requests for personal information from health authorities concerning your staff, students, and other business stakeholders, including customers and suppliers.
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Monday, 16 March 2020 01:39
World in permanent state of ‘cyber war’ claim security professionals
Security professionals believe the world is in a permanent state of cyber war, with 90% concerned that digital infrastructure will suffer the most damage as a result, according to new research which found that these professionals believe the most vulnerable industries are those that are undergoing rapid digital transformation and are essential to daily life.
According to the research by machine identity protection vendor Venafi, almost 60% of security professional respondents also say that power, water, healthcare and transportation are equally vulnerable to a cyberattack that causes physical damage.
Nineteen percent thought that power was most vulnerable, followed by healthcare (12%) and transportation and water (tied at 5%).
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Comments more than welcome!
David.
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