Articles Total 26 articles, created at 2016-03-05 18:02 Adoption of Health Apps, Wearable 1 Devices Grows An Accenture report found that the vast majority of consumers and doctors believe wearables help patients engage in their health. The number of U. S. consumers using wearables and mobile apps for managing their health has doubled from 16 percent in 2014 to 33 percent today. The findings are part of a seven-country Accenture survey of roughly 8,000 consumers, including 2,225 in the United States. The majority of both consumers (77 percent) and doctors (85 percent), the reported found, said that using wearables helps a patient engage in his or her health. In addition, four in 10 consumers who use health apps said they have discussed or shared mobile app data with their doctor in the past year. Of the one in five consumers who were asked by a doctor to use wearables to track their health, such as fitness or vital signs, three-quarters (76 percent) followed their physician's recommendation. "Overall, as wearable devices and health apps become more popular, they also face some criticism. For example, some say wearables lack the ability to keep consumers' attention in the long run—perhaps they use it for a few months and then it becomes less consistent," Dr. Kaveh Safavi, senior managing director for Accenture's global health care business, told eWEEK. "Others have noted potential privacy concerns associated with data sharing and tracking of this sort, or the pitfalls of a lack of true interoperability between consumers, health care providers and other key parties at this time. " We live in an age where technology is constantly changing, and so are privacy and security measures to protect consumers using the new devices and apps, Safavi said. "Cyber-security is a real consideration in health care," he said. "Accenture estimated in October 2015 that one in 13 patients—25 million people— will have personal information like Social Security or financial records stolen from technology systems over the next five years. " Consumers most frequently use health apps for fitness (cited by 59 percent of respondents), diet/nutrition (52 percent), symptom navigation (36 percent) and accessing their patient portal (28 percent). While the vast majority (90 percent) of consumers said they would be willing to share wearable or app data with medical providers, far fewer said they would be willing to share that data with their health plans (63 percent) or employers (31 percent). "Adoption rates of health apps and wearables over the past two years have been significant, showing that patients are leading the way in using digital tools to manage their own health," Safavi said. "U. S. consumers continue to demand a digitally-enabled health care experience, yet health care falls behind many other industries in making this available to them. That said, to get ahead, providers can invest in digital tools and strategies to better adapt to consumers' changing expectations. " 2016-03-05 17:19 Nathan Eddy www.eweek.com FBI director calls encryption a 2 'vicious guard dog' as iPhone unlocking row hits Congress APPLE AND THE FBI have gone head-to-head in Congress over whether the firm should be forced to unlock the iPhone of a terrorist in the San Bernardino case. FBI director James Comey wa s first to take the stand during the five-hour hearing. He said that the debate was the "hardest issue" he's confronted in government. "The logic of encryption will bring us, in the not too distant future, [to a situation] where all conversations and papers and effects are entirely private. There’s a lot of good about this, a lot of benefits," he said. "[But] there are many costs to this. Law enforcement is dependent on being able to obtain warrants to look at information. That’s the way law enforcement provides public security. " However, Comey added that the rising use of encryption makes it almost impossible to access information and communications. "What we get is unreadable. We cannot decrypt that which is covered by strong encryption," he said. As such, the request to force Apple to create a way into the iPhone is necessary to ensure that the data can be accessed, according to Comey. "We are not asking to expand the government’s surveillance authority, but rather we are asking to ensure that we can continue to obtain electronic information and evidence pursuant to the legal authority that Congress has provided to us," he said. Comey also claimed that the FBI asking for a ‘backdoor’ is wide of the mark, saying that it is more about removing a ‘guard dog’ on the door that already exists in iPhones. “There’s already a door on that iPhone. We’re asking Apple to take the vicious dog away and let us pick the lock,” he explained. Comey did admit that the case could set a precedent that would give the FBI powers to unlock other phones in the future, but claimed that this is not the FBI's aim and that the action the FBI is asking for would not work on newer iPhones. "Any decision by a court is potentially useful to other courts, [although] I happen to think there are technical limits to how successful this San Bernardino technique could be given how phones have changed," he said. In response, Apple lawyer Bruce Sewell reiterated the firm's stance that the FBI's demands are too broad and pose too many risks to citizens' safety and privacy. "The FBI has asked a court to order us to give them something we don’t have, to create an operating system that does not exist because it would be too dangerous," he said. "They are asking for a backdoor into the iPhone, specifically to build a software tool that can break the encryption system which protects personal information on every iPhone. "The FBI is asking Apple to weaken the security of our products. Hackers and cyber criminals could use this to wreak havoc on our privacy and personal safety. "It would set a dangerous precedent for government intrusion on the privacy and safety of its citizens. " Sewell also noted that, even if Apple was forced to build the backdoor, criminals could always find other ways to keep their information hidden in encrypted apps, citing the example of the Telegram messaging app. “If Apple is forced to write a new OS to degrade the safety and security in phones belonging to hundreds of millions of innocent people it will weaken our safety and security, but it will not affect terrorists in the least,” he said. The outcome of the case remains uncertain, but Apple was boosted on Tuesday by a ruling in a New York court that the company should not be forced to unlock an iPhone owned by a drug dealer, echoing the San Bernardino case. µ 2016-03-05 17:06 www.theinquirer.net New Mac malware linked to 3 infamous Hacking Team MALWARE FOUND IN THE WILD and uploaded to VirusTotal at the beginning of February bears all the hallmarks of Hacking Team, the Italian security software outfit that supplied covert computer cracking and surveillance tools to governments worldwide. The malware wasn't detectable by any of the major antivirus scanners at the time, and even at the beginning of this week could be detected by only 10 out of 56 antivirus software packages and services. SentinelOne security researcher Pedro Vilaça published a technical analysis of the malware earlier this week under the headline: The Italian morons are back! What are they up to this time? . Key elements of the malware indicate that Hacking Team was back in business within three months of a breach in July last year in which all the company's emails, and much of its technology and techniques, were leaked by a hacker or ex- employee who has not been publicly identified. "Looking at the dropper code and comparing it with older samples, we can't spot many differences," said Vilaça in his analysis of the malware. "The structure is more or less the same and the tricks still the same, so you can refer to my slides and older blog posts if you are interested in those details. The only difference is that this time the dropper only packs a single persistence binary and a configuration file. Older samples packed more stuff. " The malware can be accurately dated as the code shows that it was last updated in October/November and the embedded encryption key is dated 16 October. The Shodan search engine, which collects data on open network ports, indicates that the malware's host was first seen on 15 October 2015, and that the last information was gathered on 4 February, according to John Matherly, the programmer behind Shodan. Vilaça added in an update: "I just found some unique code in this dropper. This code checks for newer OS X versions and does not exist in the [July 2015] leaked source code. "Either someone is maintaining and updating HackingTeam code (why the hell would someone do that?) or this is indeed a legit sample compiled by Hacking Team themselves. "Reuse and repurposing of malware source code happens (Zeus, for example), but my gut feeling and indicators seem to not point in that direction. " Vilaça strongly believes that Hacking Team is behind this new Mac OS malware because of the way it is coded. "When you have reversed all their samples let's say you start to know them quite well," he said. His belief is also based on comments from former Hacking Team employees who have said that the malware is consistent with the company's "normal practices".