WirelessDoc Blog Archive

I imported the older posts here, mainly to take advantage of the search function on this site.

Saturday
03Oct2009

Needed: A Neiman Marcus for Mobile Apps — GigaOM Pro

DateSaturday, October 3, 2009 at 5:18AM

Apple’s App Store has become something of a Moroccan bazaar, an overwhelming place where tens of thousands of products are offered at a range of price points, from free (OK, so the bazaar analogy isn’t perfect) to $100. The shelves are especially crammed with sub-$2 apps, though, which lean heavily toward the kind of novelty junk consumers use for a few days and then forget about.

via pro.gigaom.com

This article cites a Yankee Group study that predicts prices for mobile apps will increase in the near future.

AuthorBill Koslosky MD | CommentPost a Comment |
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Saturday
03Oct2009

"Docs Want Their Own Airwaves and Other Gems From the FCC Wireless Probe"

DateSaturday, October 3, 2009 at 2:50AM

The American Telemedicine Association asked the FCC to do two things: set aside spectrum solely for use by medical professionals, and expand the existing wireless priority service for health care providers beyond the focus on emergency response during times of disaster or major service disruptions. This means doctors using a wireless phone to care for their patients can be sure their call will not be dropped. It also means ambulances using wireless communications should have priority for bandwidth.

via gigaom.com

This is a post on GigaOm about The link in this passage takes you to pdf of a document submitted by Jonathan Linkous, CEO of the ATA.

In the section Issues for FCC Consideration, subsection Interference Protection/Set Aside of Spectrum for Health Applications, the following appears:

Two options for the FCC to consider are priority services for healthcare and set‐aside of spectrum.
 
First, the FCC should consider expanding the existing Wireless Priority Service (WPS) for healthcare
providers beyond the current focus on emergency response during times of disaster or major service
disruptions.  Doctors using a wireless device to communicate with and care for critically ill patients
should be assured that their call will not be dropped.   Ambulances using wireless communications to
bring the emergency room professionals to the scene of an accident should have a priority for wireless
bandwidth. Such an expanded national service should be available to certain pre‐qualified providers so
that they, and their patients, can be assured of undisrupted connectivity at any time.
 
Second, the Commission should consider setting aside small portions of spectrum for the exclusive use
of healthcare.  A current proceeding before the Commission considers such a policy for Medical Body
Area Networks (FCC 09‐57).
 
Both of these options require considerable thought and comment.  Therefore, ATA suggests the
Commission conduct a separate Notice of Inquiry around this issue.

 

AuthorBill Koslosky MD | CommentPost a Comment |
Friday
02Oct2009

Security Maxims

DateFriday, October 2, 2009 at 4:31AM

These security maxims were compiled by Roger Johnston, who's with the Argonne Vulnerability Assessment Team, the Nuclear Engineering Division of the Argonne National Laboratory, which is a division of the U.S. Department of Energy. He has a Ph.D. and also his CPP credential, which is Certificate of Protection Professional.

Here's the first three:

Infinity Maxim: There are an unlimited number of security vulnerabilities for a given security device, system, or program, most of which will never be discovered (by the good guys or bad guys). 

Comment: We think this, because we always find new vulnerabilities when we look at the same security device, system, or program a second or third time, and because we always find vulnerabilities that others miss, and vice versa.

Thanks for Nothin’ Maxim: A vulnerability assessment that finds no vulnerabilities or only a few is worthless and wrong.

Arrogance Maxim: The ease of defeating a security device or system is proportional to how confident/arrogant the designer, manufacturer, or user is about it, and to how often they use words like “impossible” or “tamper-proof”.

Bruce Schneier is also represented:

Schneier’s Maxim #1 (Don’t Wet Your Pants Maxim): The more excited people are about a given security technology, the less they understand (1) that technology and (2) their own security problems. 

Comment: From security guru Bruce Schneier.

Schneier’s Maxim #2 (Control Freaks Maxim): Control will usually get confused with Security.

Comment: From security guru Bruce Schneier. Even when Control doesn’t get confused with Security, lots of people and organizations will use Security as an excuse to grab Control, e.g., the Patriot Act.

AuthorBill Koslosky MD | CommentPost a Comment |
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Friday
02Oct2009

Misdirected spyware infects Ohio hospital

DateFriday, October 2, 2009 at 4:17AM

Misdirected spyware infects Ohio hospital.

This is basically screen capture malware that was sent to a hospital employee's Yahoo e-mail account from a former boyfriend.

Between March 19 and March 28 the spyware sent more than 1,000 screen captures to Graham via e-mail. They included details of medical procedures, diagnostic notes and other confidential information relating to 62 hospital patients. He was also able to obtain e-mail and financial records of four other hospital employees as well, the plea agreement states.

As of the writing of this article, he was expected to plea guilty and pay a fine of $33,000 to the hospital, facing a possible maximum 5-year prison sentence.

Accountability and transparency?

Still [security expert] Howes faulted the hospital's IT staff for allowing someone to download spyware from Yahoo mail and install it on their systems. "That points to a security failing at that hospital, but then they aren't that different from 99% of companies out there," he said.

Remember when e-mail was supposed to be the killer app for the Internet?

AuthorBill Koslosky MD | CommentPost a Comment |
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Friday
02Oct2009

You MUST Own a Wireless Router - Reviews by PC Magazine

DateFriday, October 2, 2009 at 3:52AM

You MUST Own a Wireless Router - Reviews by PC Magazine.

I might be useful to emphasize the security aspect:

It Provides PC Safety

Routers typically have two built in firewalls. The first is simple NAT for network address translation, which isn't so much for protection as it is for simply making the Internet connection work to all your computers. The second is SPI or stateful packet inspection. Most modern routers have SPI, which keeps extra track of data in network packets and makes sure it's kosher (i.e., you requested it), protecting both the router and your computers by filtering out the bad.

There are other settings you can make to your router, such as disabling universal plug and play, and choosing WPA2 using both TKIP and the stronger AES, but it depends on your model, YMMV.

AuthorBill Koslosky MD | CommentPost a Comment |
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