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Daily Archives: June 13, 2013

FDA Safety Communication: Cybersecurity for Medical Devices and Hospital Networks

News release: “Many medical devices contain configurable embedded computer systems that can be vulnerable to cybersecurity breaches. In addition, as medical devices are increasingly interconnected, via the Internet, hospital networks, other medical device, and smartphones, there is an increased risk of cybersecurity breaches, which could affect how a medical device operates. Recently, the FDA has become aware of cybersecurity vulnerabilities and incidents that could directly impact medical devices or hospital network operations, including:

  • Network-connected/configured medical devices infected or disabled by malware;
  • The presence of malware on hospital computers, smartphones and tablets, targeting mobile devices using wireless technology to access patient data, monitoring systems, and implanted patient devices;
  • Uncontrolled distribution of passwords, disabled passwords, hard-coded passwords for software intended for privileged device access (e.g., to administrative, technical, and maintenance personnel);
  • Failure to provide timely security software updates and patches to medical devices and networks and to address related vulnerabilities in older medical device models (legacy devices);
  • Security vulnerabilities in off-the-shelf software designed to prevent unauthorized device or network access, such as plain-text or no authentication, hard-coded passwords, documented service accounts in service manuals, and poor coding/SQL injection.”

FCW – NSA shows how big ‘big data’ can be

FCW.com – Frank Konkel -“As reported by Information Week, the NSA relies heavily on Accumulo, “a highly distributed, massively parallel processing key/value store capable of analyzing structured and unstructured data” to process much of its data. NSA’s modified version of Accumulo, based on Google’s BigTable data model, reportedly makes it possible for the agency to… Continue Reading

Paper – Debt, Money, and Mephistopheles: How Do We Get Out of This Mess

Debt, Money, and Mephistopheles: How Do We Get Out of This Mess: “Adapted from his speech at the Cass Business School, Adair Turner, Chairman of the Financial Services Authority, discusses causes that contributed to the financial crisis and post crisis recession.  Turner argues that central bank and government policymakers need to consider radical policy options… Continue Reading

Society of American Archivists – Managing Born Digital Collections

“Jump In Initiative – We are happy to share the results of the 2013 Jump In initiative.  We had twenty-three repositories submit essays documenting their survey work, twenty-three repositories that embarked on the process of managing born-digital records.  Congratulations to all of the individuals and repositories that participated this year. Getting started can be the… Continue Reading

NASA Knowledge-Based Risk Library

“Knowledge-Based Risks (KBRs) capture risks that have been successfully mitigated in the past that are relevant to many current topics including: Project Management, Systems Engineering, Design and Development, Integration and Testing, and many more.  A typical KBR will consist of subject-matter expert video interviews, white papers, articles, and presentations in order to provide an interactive… Continue Reading

The Global Principles on National Security and Freedom of Information

“The Global Principles on National Security and the Right to Information were developed in order to provide guidance to those engaged in drafting, revising, or implementing laws or provisions relating to the state’s authority to withhold information on national security grounds or to punish the disclosure of such information. They are based on international (including regional)… Continue Reading

Brookings Presentation – Quantitative Easing Withdrawal: How Bad Will it Hurt?

Quantitative Easing Withdrawal: How Bad Will it Hurt? By: Douglas J. Elliott “Quantitative Easing: Desperate Measure for Desperate Times • QE is a last resort, not an extension of normal monetary policy, because it carries serious costs and risks • It was justified by the Great Recession following on the worst financial crisis in more than half a century •… Continue Reading