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This weekly blog is to explore the news around 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 were dated 6 December, 2018 and we have seen none since!
It is worth pointing out that it was only in last little while ( beginning end July 2020 ) the ADHA took down the notification regarding the most recent minutes notification. Embarrassed I guess – as they should be! I wonder will the new CEO make a difference?
The new CEO has been in place 11+ weeks – no new minutes obvious yet, or any other major improvements!
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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‘No sense to them’: Tackling COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on social media
By Cara Waters
December 20, 2020 — 12.00am
Dr Michael Mrozinski isn’t a typical TikTok user but the Melbourne GP has taken to the social media platform in a bid to call out medical misinformation, including about COVID-19 vaccines.
In his videos the 35-year-old, who posts as ‘Dr Michael Says’, addresses concerns about vaccine side effects while dancing to music with his stethoscope around his neck.
“There is more and more misinformation being spread on TikTok by people who just have no medical training or background in what they are saying,” he says. “It’s pretty worrying particularly regarding the COVID vaccine, with people coming up with all types of theories and there is no sense to them.”
Mrozinski is one of a growing cohort of health professionals tackling the rising wave of misinformation on social media about coronavirus vaccinations.
Microsoft hacked in massive Russian cyber attack
Hannah Murphy and Demetri Sevastopulo
Dec 18, 2020 – 3.40pm
San Francisco/ Washington | US cyber officials warned that the massive espionage campaign unearthed this week posed a “grave risk” to the government, critical infrastructure and private sector, as the US department of energy was the latest agency to confirm it had been breached.
Microsoft also admitted late on Thursday (Friday AEDT) that it had been hacked, making it the second tech company, after FireEye, to be caught up in what is quickly turning into the most sweeping cybersecurity crisis on record.
Thousands of businesses and government agencies may have been exposed after downloading compromised software from SolarWinds, a Texas-based IT group. Brad Smith, Microsoft president, said the software company had identified 40 customers that had been breached, and called it “an act of recklessness that created a serious technological vulnerability for the United States and the world”.
The energy department said on Thursday that it was “responding to a cyber incident” as part of an ongoing investigation.
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Friday, 18 December 2020 12:38
Google rejects news media code, says it is 'unworkable'
Search giant Google has rejected the Australian news media code which was introduced into Parliament on 9 December, saying it "remains unworkable, but there is a way forward".
But, in a blog post issued on Thursday, Melanie Silva, Google vice-president for Australia and New Zealand, did not say what the company would do if the code passed as it was after it was scrutinised by a parliamentary panel next year.
She said the code, officially known as News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code, had "serious problems that need to be worked through".
Silva said the code was not workable because it forced "Google to pay to show links in an unprecedented intervention that would fundamentally break how search engines work".
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https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=22af3cac-8593-47e0-9d9a-01865fcc5fb9
Biometric Data and Privacy
As the Covid-19 pandemic has swept across the world, organisations have increasingly looked to new, contactless technology. Biometric data is a powerful tool for identification which enables much of our modern contactless technology. This technology is underpinning the careful balancing act that is sustainably managing the ongoing health risks posed by COVID-19, and the reopening of economies. However, the question is how to manage this increased use of biometric data with compliance to privacy laws when contracting third party providers, particularly cloud data providers.
What is biometric data?
The most obvious thing that springs to mind when someone mentions biometric data is facial recognition, finger print scanners, or even retina scanners if you are a Mission Impossible fan from back in the days before Tom Cruise was known for jumping on couches.
According to the Biometrics Institute, biometric recognition is the “automated recognition of individuals based on their biological and behavioral characteristics” and a biometric characteristic or “biometric” is the “biological and behavioral characteristic of an individual from which distinguishing, repeatable biometric features can be extracted for the purpose of biometric recognition”[1]
In short, biometric data is you and your intrinsic properties. It is inherently identifiable and unable to be anonymized, making it possible for artificial intelligence (AI) to recognize you from things that you never even knew were unique. In addition to facial recognition and finger prints, it includes:
- the way you walk;
- the way you type;
- the shape of your ear;
- vein recognition;
- your DNA; and
- the way that you smell.
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Russian hackers target US nuclear weapons stockpile
The agency holding America’s nuclear weapons stockpile has been hacked in a suspected Russian attack as a part of one of the largest cyber espionage operations ever conducted against the United States.
Fears are mounting in Washington as more is revealed about the extent of the hacks which have hit the departments of Defence, State, Treasury, Energy, Agriculture, Homeland Security and Commerce.
On Friday (AEDT) it was revealed that hackers had accessed the networks of the National Nuclear Security Administration which maintains the US nuclear weapons stockpile.
Suspicious cyber activity was also found in the famous Los Alamos laboratories in New Mexico where the first nuclear bombs were designed as part of the Manhattan Project in World War Two. These days the labs at Los Alamos conduct atomic research related to both civil nuclear power and nuclear weapons.
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Google Australia boss says proposed new laws would ‘break how search engines work’
By Zoe Samios
December 18, 2020 — 9.18am
Google Australia boss Melanie Silva has claimed newly proposed laws to make the tech giant pay news outlets for use of content would “break” the search engine and change the experience for its users.
Ms Silva has rejected a final version of the federal government’s news media bargaining code, which was tabled in parliament last week, arguing it remains unworkable and fails to understand how the search engine operates.
“Unfortunately, while the Government has made some changes, the legislation still falls far short of a workable Code,” Ms Silva said in a blog post posted on Friday morning. “As the legislation goes to a Senate committee for inquiry, it has serious problems that need to be worked through.”
Under the proposed laws, if the tech giants cannot reach commercial agreements with news businesses within three months, the parties must enter a “final offer” arbitration process. A panel will be given the power to pick one of the parties’ respective offers for payment or find a more reasonable offer. The panel will take into account a range of factors including the value Google and Facebook given to news outlets through referral traffic. Inclusion of this value in arbitration was considered a major concession for the tech giants by the government.
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https://wildhealth.net.au/on-the-future-of-telehealth-and-virtual-care/
On the future of telehealth and virtual care
December 17, 2020 Lynnette Hoffman
Dr Zoran Bolevich talks about where the technology has come from and where it’s going after COVID.
Telehealth hasn’t appeared magically out of thin air, but its widespread use may be a lasting legacy of COVID.
The task ahead is to capitalise off the unprecedented uptake, and embed it into “the new normal”, says Dr Zoran Bolevich, chief executive of eHealth NSW and CIO of NSW Health.
“We have been using telehealth in NSW Health for many years … at least two decades,” Dr Bolevich says.
“But what we have seen during the COVID situation is that tools such as video consultations just started to be used a lot, lot more. So we’re not talking like a 10 or 20% increase, but five, six, seven times more than what we’ve seen in the past.”
Prioritising and then systematising innovations and new models of care has been paramount.
eHealth NSW consulted with local health districts and clinical groups to identify key focus areas, such as supporting residential aged care facilities and people who were isolated. Innovations sprang up: for example, using video consultations alongside biomedical devices, such as pulse oximeters to measure blood oxygen levels, to check on and monitor patients remotely.
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Facebook privacy app spied on users for market research, ACCC says
By Tim Biggs
December 16, 2020 — 1.36pm
Facebook misled consumers by collecting sensitive personal data through an app it promised would protect their privacy, and leveraged it for market research, the Australian consumer watchdog has alleged.
Onavo Protect was a free app run by Facebook from 2016. It allowed users to measure and restrict their mobile data usage, as well as offering a virtual private network for secure browsing, which required users to grant the app extensive permission to monitor their phone use.
The social media giant came under scrutiny when it transpired the app was sending analytical data back to Facebook, including information on people's usage of other apps and websites. Media reports at the time claimed Facebook used this data, in one instance, to identify its burgeoning rival WhatsApp as a target for acquisition.
The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission announced on Wednesday it had brought proceedings against Facebook in the Federal Court as it believes the practices of the app — which is now defunct after being delisted from app stores in 2018 — constituted false, misleading or deceptive conduct.
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https://apo.org.au/node/310149
Achieving trustworthy AI
A model for trustworthy artificial intelligence
24 Nov 2020
Nicole Gillespie, Caitlin Curtis, Rossana Bianchi, Ali Akbari, Rita Fentener van Vlissingen
Publisher KPMG, University of Queensland
Resources Achieving trustworthy AI
Description
This report, by the University of Queensland and KPMG, shows that trust in artificial intelligence (AI) is currently low in Australia. Concerns including privacy violations, unintended bias and inaccurate outcomes, as well as recent high profile scandals have further reduced public trust in this technology.
Trust underpins the acceptance and use of AI and requires a willingness to be vulnerable to AI systems, by sharing data or relying on automated AI decisions. This trust is built on positive expectations of the ability, humanity and integrity of the AI systems, and the people and organisations developing and deploying AI.
Many organisations are still at the early stages of maturity in establishing the ethical, technical and governance foundations to manage the risks and realise the opportunities associated with AI.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/australia-sues-facebook-over-user-data-559135
Australia sues Facebook over user data
By Byron Kaye on Dec 17, 2020 6:19AM
Echoing US antitrust case.
An Australian regulator sued Facebook, accusing it of collecting user data without permission, building on government efforts around the world to rein in the social network.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said it was seeking an unspecified fine from Facebook for promoting a virtual private network as a way for people to protect their data, while secretly using the information to pick targets for commercial acquisitions.
The lawsuit echoes a landmark US Federal Trade Commission action accusing the social media giant of inappropriately maintaining market dominance by using customer data to decide on takeover targets including messaging app Whatsapp and image-sharing app Instagram.
"There is a link to what the FTC is saying, but they're looking at a competition issue," ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said at a televised news conference.
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Wednesday, 16 December 2020 12:33
ACCC alleges Facebook misled consumers when promoting app to 'protect' users' data
Australia’s competition watchdog the ACCC has instituted proceedings in the Federal Court against Facebook and two of its subsidiaries for false, misleading or deceptive conduct when promoting its Onavo Protect mobile app to Australian consumers.
Onavo Protect was a free downloadable software application providing a virtual private network (VPN) service
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commisssion alleges that, between 1 February 2016 to October 2017, Facebook and its subsidiaries Facebook Israel Ltd and Onavo, Inc. misled Australian consumers by representing that the Onavo Protect app would keep users’ personal activity data private, protected and secret - and that the data would not be used for any purpose other than providing Onavo Protect’s products.
“In fact, the ACCC alleges, Onavo Protect collected, aggregated and used significant amounts of users’ personal activity data for Facebook’s commercial benefit.
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Software Developer Community
Announcement
HIPS
v8.0 Released
The Australian Digital Health Agency (the Agency) has released a new major release of its HIPS middleware product:
· HIPS v8.0
Key improvements
HIPS v8.0 is a major release that provides the following major improvements.
- Operational Insights
- Gain detailed insights into the performance of your HIPS installation through visualisation of statistics, trends and recovery times after outages.
- Track connectivity of HIPS with My Health Record and Healthcare Identifiers Service.
- Stay on top of maintenance issues like expiring certificates, storage availability.
- Up-to-date HIPS online documentation
- All HIPS documentation is now accessible online with improved navigation and search.
- For offline usage, all documentation continues to be available in PDF format.
- Automated installation
- Install HIPS without the need for manual interactions.
- All HIPS installation settings can be configured up-front and can be re-used across environments and for future HIPS releases.
- Security by default
- Get security of your HIPS installation out-of-the-box.
- All settings now default to secure settings and can be adjusted to suit local installation requirements.
Deprecation
of obsolete interfaces
- HIPS service interfaces scheduled for retirement in future releases now
generate log messages. Sites can utilise these log messages to schedule
upgrades of their system environment in preparation for future HIPS
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https://www.zdnet.com/article/over-4000-privacy-complaints-made-about-aussie-telcos-in-fy20/
Over 4,000 privacy complaints made about Aussie telcos in FY20
Revealed by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman in its response to the review of Australia's Privacy Act.
By Asha Barbaschow | December 15, 2020 -- 00:55 GMT (11:55 AEDT) | Topic: Security
During the 2020 financial year, consumers made over 4,000 complaints about telecommunications providers related to a user's privacy.
The Privacy Act 1988 gives the Australian Information Commissioner the discretion to recognise external dispute resolution (EDR) schemes to handle privacy-related complaints. The guidelines give consumers the ability to make complaints about privacy issues with their telecommunications provider/s directly to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO).
The TIO, in a submission [PDF] to consultation on the ongoing review of the Privacy Act, said during FY2020, it received 4,328 complaints involving privacy issues.
The wide-ranging review is considering the definition of personal information; whether existing exemptions for small businesses, political parties, and the storing of employee records to comply with the Act should remain; whether individuals should gain the power to drag privacy violators to court; and whether a privacy tort should be created.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/eu-moves-to-rein-in-us-tech-giants-559050
EU moves to rein in US tech giants
By Foo Yun Chee on Dec 16, 2020 6:45AM
Under threat of fines, break-up.
US technology firms including Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google face fines of up to 10 percent of their annual turnover and could even be forced to break up under draft European Union rules aimed at curbing their powers.
The rules are the most serious attempt by the 27-country bloc to tame tech companies that control troves of data and online platforms relied on by thousands of companies and millions of Europeans for their work and social interactions.
They also mark the European Commission's frustration with its antitrust cases against the tech giants, notably Alphabet's Google, which critics say did not address the problem.
Regulatory scrutiny has been growing worldwide of tech giants and their power following a string of scandals over privacy and misinformation.
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Social media alarms a majority of Aussies
More than one in two Australians has high levels of concern about fake news and disinformation being spread on social media, with 58 per cent worried that their personal information could be hacked or misused on digital platforms.
A JWS Research poll testing consumers’ attitudes to digital media and advertising revealed 74 per cent of Australians want Facebook, Instagram, Google and YouTube to ask for permission before sharing their private information.
With the Morrison government moving to legislate powers forcing Google and Facebook to pay for news content and share data collection methods, the survey showed 67 per cent of Australians wanted online search engines to seek approval when disseminating their consumer behaviour to third parties.
The poll of 1000 Australians aged over 18, was commissioned by digital advertising firm The Trade Desk to assess sentiment about tactics used by tech companies and the government’s world-first news bargaining code.
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https://itwire.com/security/attackers-gain-access-to-us-treasury-through-microsoft-office-365.html
Monday, 14 December 2020 08:03
Attackers gain access to US Treasury through Microsoft Office 365
Microsoft software has once again proved to be the weak link and opened the path for cyber attacks, this time to the US Treasury Department and an entity that deals with Internet and telco policy.
Reuters reported that exploiting a vulnerability in Microsoft Office 365 was the route the attackers took to break into the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a part of the US Commerce Department.
The source who fed the information to Reuters, very likely an intelligence agency given that the report was written by Chris Bing, who was responsible for many similar stories at his former billet, CyberScoop, also said the intrusion was considered serious enough to merit a meeting of the US National Security Council on Saturday.
NSC spokesman John Ullyot was quoted as saying: “We are taking all necessary steps to identify and remedy any possible issues related to this situation."
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2020 CEO Survey: Andy Penn, Telstra
What are the three enduring lessons or changes to flow from COVID-19?
The acceleration of global digitisation, as every industry was forced to move further online in one way or another, has reinforced just how important the underlying telecommunications networks are to the success of our digital economy. There is now a much greater understanding of the foundational role that telecommunications plays and the importance of encouraging the necessary investment and innovation to stay at the forefront of developments globally. Hopefully we see that better reflected in future policy conversations and decisions by governments and regulators as getting the settings right will be vital to our digital economy ambitions as a nation.
The next most important lesson has been around the workplace – how we work, when we work, and where we work. COVID-19 has taken the future of work in a totally new direction, a direction that is increasingly virtual, remote and distributed rather than physical and centralised. It sounds obvious, but work is now something you do, not somewhere you go, and that’s a big change for a lot of people. The lesson is that successful organisations will be those that respond to this change at their core, offering flexible, geographically dispersed opportunities, with a hybrid of digital and physical tools and spaces that are tailored to specific roles and technology needs, preferences and employee expectations.
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Comments more than welcome!
David.
Solarwinds and Microsoft 365. Common as muck in our government departments and agencies. With the ongoing spat with China and Russia it seems odd our own have not been targeted. Or have they?
ReplyDelete