"The Current"
It’s not surprising that law firms are a valuable target for bad actors when you consider the kind of information they deal with—from non-public intellectual property to merger and acquisitions, law firms are an absolute treasure trove for hackers.
Last month, GDPR, or the General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union, celebrated its first anniversary. So how are we doing one year later? There are many outcomes that can be attributed to the regulation, some that have improved privacy and some that haven’t had much of an effect. Let’s take a look at some of the developments and highlights of the past year and their impact on privacy:
On Tuesday, May 7, Baltimore city employees came into work to find that their computer screens were locked. “We’ve been watching you for days,” the message on their screens read, “We won’t talk more, all we know is MONEY! Hurry up!” The city of Baltimore had been hit by a ransomware attack; the hackers were demanding $100,000 in bitcoin to release their files.
The recent WhatsApp™ hack is pretty alarming: all the hackers had to do was drop a missed encrypted WhatsApp call to their target and—boom—spyware was installed. The hack didn’t require the user to do anything—even if the user didn’t pick up the phone the spyware would still be installed. But maybe what’s most important about it is that it shines a light on the myth that security is equal to end-to-end encryption.
Consistent communication and collaboration can be tricky when it comes to home healthcare—especially since it involves so many different people in many different places. Along with home healthcare professionals, a patient’s care team can include anyone from their primary care doctor to a range of specialists to family members and other caregivers. Fortunately, HIPAA-compliant mobile messaging (from mobile devices or tablets) is one way to address that challenge, keeping care teams in the loop no matter where they are and with minimal interruption to their schedule.