Seriously, this sh!t again? 24m medical records, 700m+ scan pics casually left online Around 24 million medical patients' data is floating around on the internet, freely available for all to pore over – thanks to that good old common factor, terribly insecure servers. German vuln-hunting firm Greenbone Networks found 590 "medical image archive systems online" containing a startling 737 million images, of which …
"..for all to pore over"
O.K. I'm trusting that this was an intentional misspelling, but it just doesn't play into the medical angle all that well.
Besides, the notion that medical records could be viewed as some bodily fluid leaking out a server's pores is... Well, I guess this is a kind of medical waste.
pore [ pawr, pohr ]
verb (used without object), pored, por·ing.
1. to read or study with steady attention or application: a scholar poring over a rare old manuscript.
2 to gaze earnestly or steadily: to pore over a painting.
3 to meditate or ponder intently (usually followed by over, on, or upon): He pored over the strange events of the preceding evening.
Well, I stand corrected. I've only known the word "pore" as a small opening and had always expected that the term "pore over" would metaphorically relate to the concept of "pouring". Is "pore over" supposed to refer to squinty eyes passing over something? That sounds so weird to me. Just what is the etymology of such an expression?
Sigh, well at least I learned something new.
north Americas 'dumbed down'
That's a tad harsh - the US spellings were deliberately simplified to make it easier for the many immigrants from non English-speaking countries to learn. Which still gave plenty of space for eloquence and elegant language.
No - for the current state of US grammar and spelling you have to look no further than the abysmal teaching of English in schools. And we in the UK are follwing suit.
(Lets be clear here - I'm not blaming the teachers - I'm blaming the system and the methods that don't allow the teachers to *actually* teach proper English)
Great in theory assuming these companies have them but as most will be smaller private clinics (At least in the UK) I can put money on them not having any in-house IT staff, nevermind CIOs etc.
NHS is very unlikely to be directly affected as DICOM will be at least behind national boundaries like PSN/SWAN etc however that doesn't mean this isn't NHS data and NHS patients..
Or make any security breaches an instant loss of bonus.
May be share holders should be demanding companies report all breaches at their AGMs.
You can't blame managers for recruiting IT illiterate when they themselves are IT illiterate and were appointed by senior managers that work for the business and are also IT illiterate.
Hopefully the company in the UK will be fined massively, go out of business and the board will be named and shamed, personally fined and never work again.
Unfortunately there will be a knee jerk reaction by the IT illiterate boards who will spray money at consultants to fix the problem, but will fix nothing fundamental and just cause lots work for the poor real techies who know how to fix this stuff but are not giver the funding or tools.
As for data security, it can get tiresome repeating the same simple messages. But until the world gets the message, we've got to keep on hammering it home.
Speak softly but carry a big stick: Unless fines are imposed, and most importantly COLLECTED, from the offenders, nothing gets done.
Alternatively, I hear "lawsuits" are equally effective as well.
It appears that at least some of the images are test ones given with the owners consent eg for medical consultant training.
The problem will be sorting out whose images they are, without the original data which is behind firewalls etc.
On the flip side if the original owners really wanted to, they now have access to "Their" data without heinous charges, and
in all likelihood should they choose it can be uploaded to a consultant of their choice for a second opinion.
Get ready for "XrayBook" and "MRIBook" :-)
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