Taking the pulse of cyber security in healthcare

Screen and stethoscope

Large hospitals often have thousands of workstations used by multiple employees to access confidential patient data, so securing them can be a major challenge.

Endpoint security specialist Duo Security has compared its customers in healthcare with those in other industries to determine how the sector differs in its security requirements.

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New analytics platform aims to transform mental healthcare

Healthcare data

Healthcare costs for people diagnosed with mental illness and common chronic health conditions are 75 percent higher than for those without a mental health diagnosis according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

This is because there’s often a lack of coordination between multiple care providers, different state policies and diverse payment structures which can result in poor health outcomes and higher costs across health systems.

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Pfizer and IBM using Internet of Things for Parkinson's Disease project

While life can be a glorious thing, there are many scourges that can make it more difficult. Between things like cancer and heart disease, it can be impossible to get through the minefield of life unscathed. Unfortunately, there are many more health risks out there than just those two aforementioned examples.

One particularly heartbreaking condition is Parkinson's Disease. While many people have the affliction, Michael J. Fox is one person that comes to mind when discussing it. The disease causes him, an others, to lose body control, making day-to-day activities a tiring chore. Today, Pfizer announces that it is partnering with IBM to focus on improving Parkinson's Disease care by using the Internert of Things.

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Fitbit comes to Amazon Echo, Alexa can now track your activity

Amazon Echo

It seems as though there is a constant flow of new features and capabilities arriving on Amazon's voice-enabled platform Echo. You can play Jeopardy, listen to music and podcasts, even control your lights and thermostat.

Now the system is partnering up with Fitbit to allow Alexa to tell you about your activity. There is a new series of questions that you simply ask the device and get your answers.

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Unsurprisingly, cyber criminals are using the Zika virus to their advantage

Doctor

The Zika virus has been all over the news lately and people are treating it as if it is something new. In fact, the virus named for the Zika Forest in Uganda, was first discovered way back in 1947. During the time since then, it was isolated to a narrow region near the equator, but several years ago it began to spread, jumping to south Pacific islands and finally landing in Mexico and South America.

Of course, anytime something is making news and playing to people's fears then there are at least two sectors you can count on to try and latch onto it – the media and cyber criminals. Three if you care to lump in politicians, four if you include recent statements from the Pope.

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Get your legs moving, Asics buys RunKeeper app

Runner

As a society we tend to put an emphasis on being physically fit. There may be more diet plans out there than there are people to follow them. But honestly, there's no substitute for a smart meal plan and exercise, nothing fancy is needed.

If you exercise then you're likely familiar with the name Asics, a popular manufacturer of running shoes and clothing. To keep it all in the family, the company has now purchased FitnessKeeper, maker of one of the top running apps available in the mobile space. The app can track more than just runs, though. It handles walking and cycling as well, using GPS to calculate distance and pace.

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What's on your wrist? Wearable market expected to continue its surge

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Apple Watch, Android Wear, Google Glass, the list of wearable technology continues to grow longer. New products were unveiled just recently at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. We saw items like the watch from Casio, which may appeal to this year's buyers.

The trend is expected to continue, at least according to a new report from Irish firm Research and Markets. How big will this growth be?

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Fitbit announces Blaze smartwatch, investors aren't taking the news well

Fitbit Blaze

Fitbit's stock has taken a dive after the company announced a smartwatch at CES 2016, sending shares from $30.21 at the stock market's opening yesterday, to just $23.73 at the time of writing this article. It would seem that investors were not too keen on Fitbit going after the likes of Apple Watch with its upcoming Blaze.

Fitbit is focused on fitness trackers, and is actually the largest vendor in the wearables market, having shipped 4.7 million units in Q3 2015. The smartwatch market is dominated by Apple Watch; although there are no official sales numbers, IDC says that Apple sold 3.9 million units in the same time frame.

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Ergotron WorkFit-T: An affordable alternative to a standing desk [Review]

Ergotron-stood-PR

Sitting down, so medical professionals tell us, is bad for you. As a species we’re designed to stand up and move about rather than sit in front of a screen. The trouble is, modern office-based work doesn’t really lend itself to this hunter/gatherer lifestyle.

The answer for some people is to have a standing desk so that you can bash away at your keyboard from a vertical position. It may not match the thrill of the hunt, but at least it gets you off your backside. The trouble is, purpose built standing desks can be eye-wateringly expensive, especially some of the sophisticated motorized models, and you have the problem of where to accommodate an extra piece of furniture.

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How cloud technology benefits the healthcare system

health apps

The cloud is growing every day. It is not the clouds in the sky that people are talking about. It is the cloud of information that is being stored on the World Wide Web.

There was a time when people were limited in how much information they could store on a computer. There were also limits as to how that information could be accessed. The cloud makes information available to anyone at any time as long as they are allowed to see it. This is changing the way that people communicate and the way that business operates. Healthcare is one of the areas where cloud technology offers many benefits.

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Xiaomi's new Mi Band 1s offers a heart rate sensor for less than $16

Xiaomi Mi Band 1s

Xiaomi has taken the wearables market by storm with Mi Band. The unassuming fitness tracker arrived more than a year ago with a price tag shy of $30 but with a feature set that rivals other offerings costing more than three times as much. Thanks to sales of over 10 million units, it has turned the ever-growing Chinese company from the new kid on the block into the third-largest wearables maker.

But, in the time following the launch of Mi Band, Xiaomi's competitors have diversified their lineups, introducing new models with novel features that make it seem a bit dated in comparison. Enter the second-generation Mi Band, called Mi Band 1s.

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Can your heartbeat be hacked?

Hack heart

It’s human nature to want to ensure the safety and security of our loved ones, financials, and health. From more complicated tasks such as selecting the safest car seat for a child to simple safety routines like looking both ways before crossing the street, security in every sense is always top of mind for individuals.

The same goes for businesses, which not only have to secure intangible assets such as business-critical information, but are also focused on protecting physical assets like products and employees. As the shift toward a more mobile workforce continues, the influx of connected devices -- or the Internet of Things (IoT) -- is making it more difficult for businesses to protect and secure their assets. This is especially true for the healthcare industry, where the hype around the IoT overshadows the focus on implementing security protocols for connected devices.

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Tens of thousands of medical devices are exposed to hackers

PC health repair clean

Thousands of critical medical systems such as MRI machines, completely out in the open and vulnerable to a hacker’s attack, have been exposed online, the media reported on Tuesday.

According to a report by The Register, more than 68,000 medical systems from a "very large" unnamed US organization have been exposed. That institution has some 12,000 staff and 3,000 physicians, it says in the report.

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Apple Watch may have saved teenager's life

Apple Watch Sport on wrist

Apple Watch has received a nice bit of publicity in the form of a health notification that may have saved 17 year old Paul Houle, a senior student at Tabor Academy, Massachusetts.

After practice, Houle noticed his heart rate was at 145 and it didn’t change once he got back home. He contacted his doctor, who diagnosed Houle with rhabdomyolysis, a fatal condition (if untreated) that can lead to kidney, liver, and heart failure.

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Silver underpants protect your family jewels from Wi-Fi radiation

Wireless armour

More and more of the devices we use these days rely on wireless signals for their connectivity. If you're male you quite likely carry your smartphone in your trouser pocket or use your laptop or tablet on your knee, which means these signals are being transmitted in close proximity to your gentleman's area.

Should you worry about this? A 2014 study by the University of Exeter suggests that just one hour's exposure to radiation from a mobile phone can reduce in vitro (outside the body) sperm motility to 49 percent and viability to 52 percent. In addition the World Health Organization has classified electromagnetic radiation in the same category of harmfulness to humans as petrol exhaust fumes.

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