Tag Archive for: care

TikTok users shrug at China fears: ‘It’s hard to care’

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  • By Natalie Sherman
  • Business reporter, New York

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Liz Barr says she was annoyed when her university blocked TikTok, but it hasn’t stopped her using it

TikTok has been banned on government networks and devices in the US, Canada and the European Union. But are the moves having any effect?

When TikTok would not load on her university’s wi-fi network earlier this year student Liz Barr was stymied – but not for long.

She soon figured ways around the block using personal mobile data or a virtual private network (VPN). The block had been introduced after state officials in Maryland banned the video app on government networks, citing national security concerns.

“I was annoyed, because I live here and I get bored,” says the 18-year-old, who is studying computer science and creative writing at St Mary’s College of Maryland. “But now it works, so it’s not that big of a problem.”

The workaround shows the quandary facing the US and other countries as they threaten to crack down on TikTok, which has exploded in global popularity in recent years offering an endless feed of user-generated makeup tutorials, life hacks, silly dances, and other confessionals curated by algorithm.

Rumbling against the social media platform, which is owned by the Chinese tech giant ByteDance and has more than one billion users globally, has reached new pitch in recent months.

Concerns have been especially loud in the US, where politicians from across the ideological spectrum are urging steps to curtail its reach, arguing that the data TikTok collects could be used by the Chinese government to spy on Americans or influence political debates.

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Watch: Ros Atkins on… The creeping TikTok bans

Dozens of states, like Maryland, have banned TikTok on government networks and devices, moves that affect access in public libraries, universities and elsewhere.

TikTok’s chief executive is due to appear this month in Congress, which is debating various proposals that could result in a wider national ban, while the company remains in a years-long negotiation with the White House about what changes it could make to satisfy the…

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Computer chip makers must provide child care, other benefits if they want federal funding

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Biden gives remarks at Ohio groundbreaking of Intel computer chip facility

President Joe Biden highlighted a rare bipartisan down payment boosting U.S. manufacturing as he visited the Ohio groundbreaking of a new Intel computer chip facility on Sept. 9, 2022.

WASHINGTON – The Commerce Department is opening the application process for computer chip manufacturers to access $39 billion in government support to build new factories and expand production.

All companies seeking the funds will need to show how they plan to develop a local workforce, with firms getting $150 million or more also required to provide affordable and accessible child care for their workers.

The funding is part of the CHIPS and Science Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law last August. Grants, loans and loan guarantees are meant to revive domestic production of computer chips.

Computer chip

FILE – An open smartphone lies in front of an LED wall showing a chip. (Lino Mirgeler/picture alliance via Getty Images)

It’s aimed at sharpening the U.S. edge in military technology and manufacturing while minimizing the kinds of supply disruptions that occurred in 2021, after the start of the coronavirus pandemic, when a shortage of chips shut down factory assembly lines and fueled inflation.

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FILE – Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo speaks during the daily press briefing at the White House on Sept. 06, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

“This is fundamentally a national security initiative,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said as the application process began Tuesday. “We are not writing blank checks to any company that asks.”

The money is meant to support private investment in new factories and can be clawed back if companies use it on stock buybacks instead. Major companies such as Intel, TSMC, IBM, Micron and Texas Instruments have already launched aggressive expansions tied to the support, which will total $52 billion when coupled with funding for research.

Raimondo said that any company that receives support cannot expand its manufacturing capacity in foreign countries that are a source of national security concerns, a restriction that would appear to apply to China. Nor could recipients…

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You may not care where you download software from, but malware does

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One of the pieces of advice that security practitioners have been giving out for the past couple of decades, if not longer, is that you should only download software from reputable sites. As far as computer security advice goes, this seems like it should be fairly simple to practice.

But even when such advice is widely-shared, people still download files from distinctly non-reputable places and get compromised as a result. I have been a reader of Neowin for over a couple of decades now, and a member of its forum for almost that long. But that is not the only place I participate online: for a little over three years, I have been volunteering my time to moderate a couple of Reddit’s forums (subreddits) that provide both general computing support as well as more specific advice on removing malware. In those subreddits, I have helped people over and over again as they attempted to recover from the fallout of compromised computers. Attacks these days are usually financially motivated, but there are other unanticipated consequences as well. I should state this is not something unique to Reddit’s users. These types of questions also come up in online chats on various Discord servers where I volunteer my time as well.

One thing I should point out is that both the Discord and Reddit services skew to a younger demographic than social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. I also suspect they are younger than the average Neowin member. These people grew up digitally literate, and have had access to advice and discussions about safe computing practices available since pre-school.

A breakdown in communications

Despite having the advantage of having grown up with computers and information on securing them, how is it that these people have fallen victim to certain patterns of attacks? And from the information security practitioner’s side, where exactly is the disconnect occurring between what we’re telling people to do (or not do, as the case may be), and what they are doing (or, again, not doing)?

Sometimes, people will openly admit that they knew better but just did a “dumb thing,” trusting the source of the software when they knew wasn’t…

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Ransomware attacks on America’s health care systems more than doubled from 2016 to 2021, exposing the personal health information of millions

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The annual number of ransomware attacks on health care provider organizations more than doubled from 2016 to 2021, exposing the personal health information of nearly 42 million individuals. A new report from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health (SPH), published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Health Forum, shows that ransomware attacks on healthcare providers are not just increasing in frequency, they are also becoming more severe — exposing larger quantities of personal health information and affecting large organizations with multiple health care facilities.

To conduct the study, researchers created a database called the Tracking Healthcare Ransomware Events and Traits (THREAT), a unique tool that for the first time allows researchers to track the occurrence of ransomware attacks on health care provider organizations.

Ransomware is a type of malicious software that prevents users from accessing their electronic systems and demands a ransom to restore access. While some prominent ransomware attacks on health care delivery organizations have received media attention, there is currently no systematic documentation of the extent and effect of ransomware attacks on our health care system. 

In the first-ever comprehensive analysis of ransomware attacks on U.S. health care providers, researchers documented that between 2016 and 2021:

  • 374 instances of ransomware attacks on health care delivery organizations exposed the personal health information of nearly 42 million individuals. 
  • Ransomware attacks more than doubled on an annual basis, from 43 to 91 per year. 
  • The number of individuals whose personal health information was exposed increased from approximately 1.3 million in 2016 to more than 16.5 million in 2021. 
  • Disruptions in care for patients as a result of ransomware incidents occurred in 166 — or 44% — of attacks.
  • Among health care delivery facilities, clinics were the most frequent targets of ransomware attacks, followed by hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, mental/behavioral health facilities, dental practices and post-acute care organizations. 

“As health care delivery organizations have…

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