Neglect Exposes Private Medical Files
October 28, 2015
Data such as financial information and medical files are supposed to be protected behind secure firewalls and barriers that ensure people’s information does not fall into the wrong hands. While digital security is at the best it has ever been, sometimes a hacker does not to rely on his/her skills to get sensitive information. Sometimes all they need to do is wait for an idiotic mistake, such as what happened on Amazon Web Services wrote Gizmodo in “Error Exposes 1.5 Million People’s Private Records On Amazon Web Services.”
Tech junkie Chris Vickery heard a rumor that “strange data dumps” could appear on Amazon Web Services, so he decided to go looking for some. He hunted through AWS, found one such dump, and it was a huge haul or it would have been if Vickery was a hacker. Vickery discovered it was medical information belonging to 1.5 million people and from these organizations: Kansas’ State Self Insurance Fund, CSAC Excess Insurance Authority, and the Salt Lake County Database.
“The data came from Systema Software, a small company that manages insurance claims. It still isn’t clear how the data ended up on the site, but the company did confirm to Vickery that it happened. Shortly after Vickery made contact with the affected organizations, the database disappeared from the Amazon subdomain.”
The 1.5 million people should be thanking Vickery, because he alerted these organizations and the data was immediately removed from the Amazon cloud. It turns out that Vickery was the only one to access the data, but it begs the question what would happen if a malicious hacker had gotten hold of the data? You can count on that the medical information would have been sold to the highest bidder.
Vickery’s discovery is not isolated. Other organizations are bound to be negligent in data and your personal information could be posted in an unsecure area. How can you get organizations to better protect your information? Good question.
Whitney Grace, October 28, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Kashman to Host Session at SharePoint Fest Seattle
July 14, 2015
Mark Kashman, Senior Product Manager at Microsoft, will deliver a presentation at the upcoming SharePoint Fest Seattle in August. All eyes remain peeled for any news about the new SharePoint Server 2016 release, so his talk entitled, “SharePoint at the Core of Reinventing Productivity,” should be well watched. Benzinga gives a sneak peek with their article, “Microsoft’s Mark Kashman to Deliver Session at SharePoint Fest Seattle.”
The article begins:
“Mark Kashman will deliver a session at SharePoint Fest Seattle on August 19, 2015. His session will be held at the Washington State Convention Center in downtown Seattle. SharePoint Fest is a two-day training conference (plus an optional day of workshops) that will have over 70 sessions spread across multiple tracks that brings together SharePoint enthusiasts and practitioners with many of the leading SharePoint experts and solution providers in the country.”
Stephen E. Arnold is also keeping an eye out for the latest news surrounding SharePoint and its upcoming release. His Web service ArnoldIT.com efficiently synthesizes and summarizes essential tips, tricks, and news surrounding all things search, including SharePoint. The dedicated SharePoint feed can save users time by serving as a one-stop-shop for the most pertinent pieces for users and managers alike.
Emily Rae Aldridge, July 14, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
SharePoint 2016 to Feature Deeply Ingrained Cloud Services
July 7, 2015
As additional details continue to be released, the SharePoint community speculates about the role of the cloud in the upcoming 2016 version. According to the GCN article, “SharePoint 2016 Built on Cloud Foundation,” cloud will play a central role.
Read all the details in the article, which begins:
“When SharePoint Server 2016 is released next year, Microsoft’s cloud services will be deeply ingrained, creating a more unified end user experience across components. ‘Everything we’re doing in Office 365 inspires the [SharePoint Server] product going forward, and you’ll see this cadence continuing,’ said Mark Kashman, a senior product manager at Microsoft on the SharePoint team.”
It sounds like users may have a steeper learning curve on this upcoming version, but then the pace may be set for the next several years. What will be interesting to see is whether users find the cloud focus to be intuitive, or if it is a hindrance, particularly for those who have voiced a preference for on-premises capabilities to continue. Microsoft is definitely trying to walk the line and be all things to all people, but then that has always been both its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime leader in search and he knows the strengths and weaknesses well. His Web service, ArnoldIT.com, features a dedicated SharePoint feed, and is a great resource for users who need to stay up to speed without a huge investment in research time.
Emily Rae Aldridge, July 7, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
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