Category «Healthcare»

As viral infections skyrocket, masks are still a tried-and-true way to help keep yourself and others safe

The cold and flu season of 2023 has begun with a vengeance. Viruses that have been unusually scarce over the past three years are reappearing at remarkably high levels, sparking a “tripledemic” of COVID-19, the flu and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. This November’s national hospitalization levels for influenza were the highest in 10 years. Emily Toth Martin and Marisa Eisenberg are infectious disease epidemiologists and researchers, and have spent our careers focused on understanding how viruses spread and how best to stop them. To respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, public health colleagues have had to quickly revive and apply decades of evidence on respiratory virus transmission to chart a path forward. Over the course of the pandemic, epidemiologists have established with new certainty the fact that one of our oldest methods for controlling respiratory viruses, the face mask, remains one of the most effective tools in a pandemic.

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Subjects: Health, Healthcare, Medical Research

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 17, 2022

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Tricking antivirus solutions into deleting the wrong files on Windows; DOJ Seizes Dozens of Websites as Part of Cyberattack-for-Hire; TikTok pushes harmful content promoting eating disorders and self-harm into young users’ feeds; and FCC May Mandate Security Updates for Phones.

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Subjects: Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Food & Drug Law, Healthcare, Privacy, Social Media, Viruses & Hoaxes

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cybersecurity issues – October 30, 2022

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Thomson Reuters collected and leaked at least 3TB of sensitive data; Criminals are starting to exploit the metaverse, says Interpol. So police are heading there too; Public Entities in Nearly Every State Use Federally-Banned Foreign Tech, Report Says; and Should you log in with Facebook or Google on other sites or apps? Short answer: No!

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Subjects: AI, Big Data, Criminal Law, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Government Resources, Healthcare, KM, Legal Research, Privacy, Social Media

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, September 10, 2022

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: U.S. bank regulator warns of crisis risk from fintech proliferation; Supply chain risk is a top security priority as confidence in partners wanes; FBI Warns Individuals Employed in the Healthcare Industry of the Ongoing Scam Involving the Impersonation of Law enforcement and Government; and IST to launch new guidance on security risks of telehealth and smart home integration.

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Subjects: Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Economy, Email Security, Healthcare, Privacy, Social Media

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, August 20, 2022

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Google blocks largest HTTPS DDoS attack ‘reported to date’; Spy group abuses Microsoft OneDrive to steal credentials in hack-and-leak campaigns; Reps. Nadler, Thompson Send Letter to FBI, DHS on Personal Data; and Digital Medical Companies Funnel Patient Data To Facebook For Advertising.

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Subjects: Big Data, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Economy, Financial System, Healthcare, Legal Research, Privacy, Social Media

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, August 13, 2022

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Hospital and Drugmaker Move to Build Vast Database of New Yorkers’ DNA; Your iPhone’s deleted voicemails aren’t actually deleted; FTC Contemplates Rules to Protect Against Commercial Surveillance and Lax Data Privacy; North Korean hackers target crypto experts with fake Coinbase job offers.

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Subjects: Big Data, Cryptocurrency, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Healthcare, Privacy, Social Media

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, August 6, 2022

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Report – Hidden Harms: The Misleading Promise of Monitoring Students Online; Meta, US hospitals sued for using healthcare data to target ads; All software is guilty until proven innocent; and Twitter Faces A Surge In Account Data Requests By Governments.

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Subjects: Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Commerce, Health, Healthcare, Legal Research, Privacy, Social Media, Technology Trends

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, July 23, 2022

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Report: 47% of orgs experienced a voice phishing attack last year; Rising Cyberthreats Increase Cyber Insurance Premiums While Reducing Availability; FTC explains ‘reasonable’ cybersecurity; and Facebook has started to encrypt links to counter privacy-improving URL Stripping.

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Subjects: Civil Liberties, Criminal Law, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Free Speech, Government Resources, Healthcare, Legal Research, Legislative, Privacy, United States Law

Light pollution is disrupting the seasonal rhythms of plants and trees, lengthening pollen season in US cities

City lights that blaze all night are profoundly disrupting urban plants’ phenology – shifting when their buds open in the spring and when their leaves change colors and drop in the fall. New research Yuyu Zhou coauthored shows how nighttime lights are lengthening the growing season in cities, which can affect everything from allergies to local economies. In the study, Zhous and his colleagues analyzed trees and shrubs at about 3,000 sites in U.S. cities to see how they responded under different lighting conditions over a five-year period. Plants use the natural day-night cycle as a signal of seasonal change along with temperature.

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Subjects: Climate Change, Energy, Environmental Law, Healthcare

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, July 16, 2022

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Should we be worried about real-time facial recognition systems?; Some VPNs can’t be trusted. These are best at privacy and security; In a Post-Roe World, the Future of Digital Privacy Looks Even Grimmer; and Here’s how North Korean operatives are trying to infiltrate US crypto firms.

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Subjects: AI, Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Discovery, Email Security, Healthcare, Legal Research, Privacy, Search Engines, United States Law
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