Note: I have excluded (or marked out) any commentary taking significant funding from the Agency or the Department of Health on all this to avoid what amounts to paid propaganda. (e.g. CHF, RACGP, AMA, National Rural Health Alliance etc. where they were simply putting the ADHA line – viz. that the myHR is a wonderfully useful clinical development that will save huge numbers of lives at no risk to anyone – which is plainly untrue) (This signifies probable ADHA Propaganda)
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Note: This week has just covered all the privacy compromising announcements in a week – along with the myHR. It never seems to stop!
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I’ll be evil and I’ll get rich. You can have a share.
By John Schwartz
12 January 2019 — 11:08am
Let's make the future great again.
Do you remember when the future was great? I do. Technology was going to fix our problems, changing the way we all live, work and play.
That kind of utopian patter was big at the beginning of my career, when the hot new app was … fire.
Over time, technologies changed but the overblown promises stayed. The internet was going to give us access to the best of the world's information. Music services like Napster would be an infinite jukebox, and all free! Social media would connect us with our friends and families (and their pets and holiday snapshots), and usher in new waves of democracy around the world!
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Data breaches raise new concerns about Australia’s e-health record
January 10, 2019
There have been calls for another stay on the roll out of Australia’s troubled My Health Record digital patient data scheme after figures revealed an increase in the number of data breaches.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the system sustained 42 data breaches last financial year, just as the country’s government struggled to convince people not to opt-out of the system.
My Health Record has been roundly criticised as it is based around an “opt-out” principle, and as the project developed there were serious concerns about what the information could be used for and who could see it.
There were worries that other government departments may be able to access the records – although researchers and public health officials can only access de-identified data from the system.
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My Health Record system data breaches rise
Hafizah Osman | 10 Jan 201
The number of data breaches involving My Health Record has risen year-on-year, from 35 incidents in the last financial year to 42 incidents this year, a report by the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) has shown.
The agency’s Annual Report 2017–18 identified that “42 data breaches (in 28 notifications) were reported to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)… concerning potential data security or integrity breaches”, but with “no purposeful or malicious attacks compromising the integrity or security of the My Health Record system”.
Of the 42 instances, one breach resulted from unauthorised access to a My Health Record as a result of an incorrect parental authorised representative being assigned to a child.
Two breaches resulted from suspected fraud against the Medicare program, where the incorrect records appeared in the My Health Record of the affected individual and were viewed without authority by the individual undertaking the suspected fraudulent activity.
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My Health Record data breached 77 times in 24 months
Australia’s controversial My Health Record program has once again come under scrutiny after it has been revealed data breaches of the system have more than doubled in the last 12 months.
Over a 24 month period, My Health Record documents have revealed 77 data breaches reported to the Australian Information Commissioner, including 42 breaches recorded since Australians began being automatically enrolled into the system last year.
DATA BREACHES
A new report released by the Australian Digital Health Agency has revealed there has been 42 data breaches since Australians began to be enrolled on the new My Health Record system in July.
According to reports, records show data was breached by authorities for a number of reasons, including after a child was mistakenly given parental authorisation to view a record, 24 for suspected cases of Medicare fraud, and 17 due to “intertwined Medicare records”.
The numbers show an increase from the 2016-2017 report, where My Health Record authorities reported 35 data breaches, all of a similar nature to this year’s breaches.
This takes the total number to 77 data breaches in 24 months.
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There’s a cost to not innovating and the public sector risks paying full price
09 Jan 19
Article by Rimini Street general manager APAC, Andrew Powell.
The public sector, by necessity, has always been constrained when it comes to spending on innovation. Budgets are often tighter and even if they’re not, the public purse is under constant scrutiny from taxpayers and citizens.
Regardless, most organisations are moving towards some form of digitisation, and government agencies need to keep pace with the rate of innovation for the sake of taxpayers – and there is a significant downside risk to not innovating.
Rimini Street recently commissioned research from Vanson Bourne into “The State of IT Innovation” which surveyed decision makers across the globe, including in Australia and New Zealand and across both the private and public sector. It found that, on average, all respondents wanted to increase their innovation spend by 15.89 per cent but their organisations planned an increase of 10.94 per cent.
But diving deeper into the findings, public sector respondents wanted an increase of 14.38 per cent, yet their organisations planned to increase it by just 8.52 per cent.
Further, the Vanson Bourne research found that organisations – both public and private – in the A/NZ region plan to spend the second-least amount on IT innovation in the next 12 months, beating only Israel in surveyed regions across the globe. Further, A/NZ organisations plan to increase their IT innovation spend by just 6.31 per cent in the 12 months following the survey, well below the global average of 10.94 per cent.
There may be reasons for public sector agencies in particular to be somewhat reluctant with IT innovation spend, such as recent headline-grabbing IT issues: for instance, My Health Record has come under fire from a sceptical public due to concerns around privacy and data security.
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January 9 2019 - 4:00AM
Seniors Week events at Lake Cathie and Port Macquarie
Local News ADHA Propaganda
Attendees at the 2018 Seniors Expo Event at Panthers in Port Macquarie.
The community is invited to a celebratory event as part of Seniors Week on Monday, February 18.
There will be a Love Your Life morning tea at Lake Cathie Bowling Club, hosted by the North Coast Primary Network’s Healthy Towns team.
Love your Life is the theme for the 2019 Seniors Week to celebrate the many positives of growing older.
The morning tea is from 9.30am until 10.30am at the Lake Cathie Bowling Club. The event will include a number of presentations about the online medical record, My Health Record and about the role of a GP in managing health. Attendees will be given a show bag.
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Better access to health data could save $3bn and improve Australians’ health
Hafizah Osman | 08 Jan 2019
A national study into the risks of CT scans in children that was delayed by three years waiting for Commonwealth approval to access data has supported findings that Australian health and medical researchers face a myriad of problems around data accessibility for research.
Another example, a University of Melbourne researcher who spent $60,000 of her research budget to access 6000 Victorian births, deaths and marriages certificates, also supported the claims of the Flying Blind 2: Volume 2 – Australian Researchers and Digital Health report.
The study found that better access for researchers to health data could save the country $3 billion and improve the health of all Australians over the next 15 years.
Flying Blind is a collaboration between the newly established Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), the Capital Markets CRC and Research Australia.
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Computers can see genetic disorders in your face
- By The Times
- The Times
- 3:05PM January 8, 2019
Scientists have developed an artificial-intelligence system that can identify rare genetic conditions from a photograph of a patient’s face.
The DeepGestalt system offers new hope for parents of children who suffer developmental delays because of genetic variations.
“We hope to shorten the length of the diagnostic odyssey these families often go through,” said Karen Gripp, co-author of a paper published in the journal Nature Medicine.
However, there are fears that the technology could be abused.
Peter Bannister, of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, said: “If your insurance company can tell from a passport photo that you have a genetic disorder, could they discriminate against you?”
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'Unintended redirection' renders Australian government sites unusable
Embarrassing errors blamed on hosting service run by Department of Finance
Mon 7 Jan 2019 17.34 AEDT Last modified on Mon 7 Jan 2019 17.36 AEDT
The websites of a string of government agencies experienced embarrassing errors on Monday afternoon, which caused domain names to erroneously display the home pages of separate departments.
The errors, which rendered home pages all but unusable, appeared to begin early Monday afternoon. Domain names erroneously cycled through a range of webpages from separate agencies or departments.
The domain name for the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) website, for example, wrongly cycled between the home pages of My Health Record, IP Australia, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, and the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
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Increasing patient involvement: 4 rules of engagement
Allowing patients to be more engaged with their care can help people be healthier and deliver better health outcomes. Technology is seen as a key enabler.
However, technology-enabled patient engagement is evolving. Globally, most countries exhibit a relatively low level of maturity for common patient engagement online functions, such as patient access to medical records, appointment booking, or communication with clinicians through secure messaging.
This is certainly the case in Australia, where efforts to engage the general population in electronic health care are often overshadowed by privacy and security concerns.
A recent survey of general medical practices in Victoria, published by Urooj Raza Khan et al from Charles Sturt University, found that while 76% of 51 healthcare providers had interacted with the Australian national My Health Record, only 29% of 179 patients had done the same.
While 66% of respondents believed MyHR contributed to making patient care easier and faster, only 49% believed it helped make patient care safer. Some 57% thought MyHR adoption should be encouraged through things like more user education and training, marketing and promotion, and usability improvements.
As we look to MyHR and other technology initiatives to further engage patients in their own care, the following considerations, based on the experience of the UK National Health Scheme (NHS), should be borne in mind.
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Facebook's biggest bear says problems 'likely to worsen' in 2019
By Ryan Vlastelica
Updated 08 Jan 2019 — 9:20 AM, first published at 9:12 AM
New York | Facebook is likely to see another rough year in 2019 as "many of the company's managerial choices in its early years continue to play out negatively", according to Pivotal Research Group, which slashed its price target on the stock.
The target was lowered to $US113 from $US125, which represents downside potential of about 18 per cent from the company's Monday close of $US138.05. The new target is also the lowest on the Street.
Analyst Brian Wieser affirmed his sell rating, saying the social media company's problems "seem likely to worsen from here (which is saying something considering the year it had in 2018)".
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Dozens of Breaches of the My Health Record Database Have Already Been Recorded
By Zeb Holmes and Ugur Nedim
The number of breaches detected and recorded against the My Health Record database rose from 35 to 42 in the past financial year, raising concerns about who the information may be sold or provided to, and how it may be misused.
The breaches fly in the face of consistent claims by the federal government that the database is safe and secure, and that the privacy of those who choose not to opt out is protected.
The scheme
My Health Record is an online summary of your key health information, which is accessible to authorised persons from anywhere.
Every Australian will eventually receive a My Health Record unless they opt out of the scheme.
Initially, Australians were given only three months to opt out, but the deadline has been extended twice due to various issues with the system. The latest opt out deadline is 31 January 2019.
Currently, six million Australians are registered on the My Health Record database. That number is expected to increase to about 23 million when the opt-out period ends.
By the end of October 2018, 1.1 million Australians had opted out of the scheme.
Government agency claims breaches are not malicious
The Australian Digital Health Agency annual report claims there have been “no purposeful or malicious attacks compromising the integrity or security of the My Health Record system”.
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Telecoms privacy and data security provisions in Australia
Privacy and data security
Net neutrality
What is your jurisdiction’s regulatory stance on net neutrality?
In Australia, there is no mandated net neutrality rule. As a result, the only protections of an equal playing field over the Internet are contained within general laws regarding anti-competitive conduct. The introduction of net neutrality laws was a recommendation of the former Labour government in its Convergence Review, but it is not currently being pursued by the coalition (conservative) government that took office in 2013. Importantly, though, the Australian domestic telecommunications market differs to the US and European markets in a number of respects that impacts on this issue. For example, in Australia there is significantly less vertical integration than in the United States. Further, Australian internet plans are priced principally by reference to the amount of data downloaded (‘user pays’ model), as well as speed. Additionally, as the Australian network is open to use by competitors, customers are able to choose from a wide range of broadband providers (and indeed different technology mixes) and can easily switch between providers and plans.
Encryption
Are there regulations or restrictions on encryption of communications?
Generally, encryption can be used freely within Australia. The Cybercrime Act 2001 provides some provision for law enforcement agencies to compel disclosure of encrypted data. The restrictions on encryption of communications are largely contained in the Customs (Prohibited Exports) Regulations Schedule 13E and Section 112 of the Customs Act 1901. Crypto-software is included on the Defence and Strategic Goods List (DSGL) and the Australian Defence Trade Controls Act 2012 (DTCA) prohibits the ‘supply’ of DSGL technology outside of Australia without a permit. There are exceptions detailed in the DSGL Cryptography Note that include, for example, material in the public domain and software/hardware where the cryptographic function cannot be easily changed. Further exceptions exist for technology that is considered ‘basic scientific research’, software which is for personal use and for specific financial products/applications.
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Emergency text and email service hacked, residents receive warning messages about their personal data
7 January, 2019
A hacker has been able to send messages via text, email, and landline to tens of thousands of people across Australia after an emergency warning alert service, used by councils, was hacked.
Key points:
- The company says a 'small proportion' of its database received a message from the hacker
- People who received the message are urged to delete it and not reply
- Police are investigating the breach
The message sent from the Early Warning Network on Friday night warned "EWN has been hacked. Your personal data is not safe. Trying to fix the security issues".
It then included a link to a support email address and a website.
EWN said a hacker accessed its alerting system and sent the message to part of its database.
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German cyber agency defends handling of data breach
By Paul Carrel and Holger Hansen
Updated 06 Jan 2019 — 3:00 PM, first published at 12:08 PM
Berlin |Germany's BSI cyber defence agency at the weekend defended its role in responding to a far-reaching data breach, saying it could not have connected individual cases it was aware of last year until the entire data release became public.
The government said on late on Friday (AEDT) that personal data and documents from hundreds of German politicians and public figures including Chancellor Angela Merkel had been published online, in what appeared to be one of Germany's biggest data breaches.
The incident has shocked the establishment and prompted calls for security agencies to clarify whether any security deficiencies they were aware of had been exploited, and if they could have acted sooner to head off the breach.
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Comments welcome!
David.
