by Anika D | Feb 24, 2021 | Cybersecurity, Data Science
While many sectors including manufacturing are using AI and modern technologies, many healthcare facilities are still unsure. Mostly because the large data collection makes them easy targets and the past records.
For instance, February of 2020 alone marked 39 data breach cases in healthcare. More than 1531,855 records got exposed.
Source
So the government has strict codes for the healthcare sector. They have to follow it to avoid legal conflicts and ensure users’ security.
Here’s a little detail about the risk this sector faces and the tricks it’s following to prevent the breaches.
Risks
There are multiple risk possibilities in using high-end and automated technologies including cloud storage in healthcare. The most common of them is the data breach risks.
Since the system connects with the internet and uses it to store, manage and access the data, it’s vulnerable to cybercrimes. If anyone gets access to the data, they will have access to every confidential detail of the patients. It can also compromise data about the finances of the firm.
Another risk in this sector is an indirect or direct release of details. While it’s a rare scenario. There are cases where a private organization sold/released their user data.
Cracking Data Privacy Code
The data privacy code states that any personal data that a person including a staff member shares with healthcare is confidential. The healthcare center and anyone connected with it has to ensure its safety.
The following are some tricks and measures that the healthcare sector is currently using for this part.
Secure Access
Every system connected with healthcare needs a proper credential to access the information. Some facilities also use dual check and timed login features for this part. The online database also used firewalls and sometimes data science firms to detect system anomalies.
Encryption
Converting the data into a different form is common for most websites. The healthcare facilities assign a cipher key to every entry and save it as a hex code. This way, even if someone gets the hacks, all they see will be codes. The cipher key further ensures that the methods like brute force or guessing don’t work.
Sophisticated Security Checks
Even with precautions, there are always possibilities of hacks and patches. So, healthcare facilities often interact with data science and automation firms to introduce analytical applications in their system. These systems help use the network data and past data to predict unwanted activities on it. The data is helpful in finding system weaknesses and fixing them.
Controlled Third-Party Access
The healthcare centers get regular visits from a number of people, including general visitors, patients, maintenance workers, and vendors. Many like the maintenance worker may even need to use a computer at the center. So, it’s a common policy to lock the patient information.
Proper Disposal of Devices
The IOT based medical devices store data about their users and sometimes the staff member associated with them. Throwing it without wiping is a big risk, even if it’s broken or non-functional. Mostly, the healthcare centers have specified disposal for them. They are locked out of reach and then destroyed or wiped to extend that no one can recover data from them.
System Misuse
One of the most common causes of data breaches in Healthcare is system misuse. 71.7% times it’s the LAN accessed system that causes the data breach. Training staff members and restricting the use of any external storage device is one way to prevent this issue. Restricting non-trusty websites and monitoring systems is also effective.
Source
Final Words
Data privacy code is essential to ensure that everyone associated with the healthcare sector gets security. The hospitals are taking strict measures to ensure their compliance with these codes. This combined with other technologies like 5G is sure to revolutionize the industry.
by Linda Rawson | Feb 7, 2021 | Information Technology, System Engineering
Building a cyber secure system is one of the fundamental objectives of software developers and system engineers and the absence of security is a severe problem. Software developers focus on building feature-rich applications and improving user interaction and user experience. Security of applications and overall systems is left out to be tackled by third parties AFTER the system is developed.
The absence of security in the initial stages of System Engineering is the single most significant cybersecurity gap and risk in modern system development. ~Linda Rawson
Assurance Approach
Researchers have proposed different approaches to secure a system. Security by Design is an assurance approach; software and hardware developers try to secure systems by adopting practices like continuous testing, authentication safeguards, and adherence to best programming practices. This approach allows you to formalize infrastructure design and automate security controls so that you can secure every aspect of IT management and administration.
Absence of Security is an Organization Thing
Security in system engineering has a lot to do with WHO is involved more than vulnerabilities. The most important thing is to get the organization on board to embrace security. No exceptions. Implementing a DevSecOps approach ensures that security, development, and IT Ops teams work toward a joint security goal. If developers are onboarded with training that teaches them how to be hackers, they will write hacker-proof code.
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Traditional Methods Need Adjusting
Security by Design helps secure the systems that were not networked initially, and security has not traditionally been considered in product design. One of the vital part goals of Security by Design is baking security into the design lifecycle, ensuring that data flows are secure, and authentication is appropriate.
Baking in Security
Baking in security is imperative as the entire IT landscape infrastructure has moved from just being client-server architecture to virtualization, cloud, a serverless environment, and containers, making it complicated for security practices. Cybersecurity should not be an afterthought; it should be baked in during the entire lifecycle of system development and deployment.
The variety of application development practices and frameworks should also be a motivation behind adopting cybersecurity. The conception, and partial reality, is cybersecurity is challenging and will slow the development cycle down. Modern software development lifecycle models have relaxed the perceived rigidity and are moving toward Agile methods.
The Waterfall model’s sequencing, emphasizing documentation at each phase before proceeding to the next phase, made it easier to include security controls at every step of the process. Baked in cybersecurity fit right into the rigid process.
Organizations are increasingly moving away from the waterfall model to rapid development cycles, where code is released monthly, weekly, daily, or even hourly.
The End Goal
Hardware and software should be treated together, integrated with cybersecurity early and frequently.
by Linda Rawson | Feb 5, 2021 | Cybersecurity, Information Technology
A cyber-resilient mindset is different from a cybersecurity mindset, although they are complimentary. Cybersecurity has often been an afterthought in System Engineering. It always surprises me to read through diagrams or models and discover not one mention of cybersecurity. Criminals will exploit humans and systems to bring the system to its knees and cause massive revenue loss.
Security in System Engineering has a lot to do with WHO is involved more than vulnerabilities. The most important thing for System Engineering security is in changing the culture to embrace security. No exceptions. Security must be built into the project at the beginning.
Implementing a DevSecOps approach ensures that security, development, and IT Ops teams work toward a joint security goal. ~ Linda Rawson
The People are Not the Process.
DevSecOps is agile in nature, and the people are still involved but not in the same capacity as they were in the Waterfall model. In DevSecOps, the people are not the process: The pipeline, the set of phases and tools that the code follows to reach deployment, defines the process.
The phases include Build, Test, and Deployment and prefer automation over manual methods. Build automation consists of the tools needed to grab the code and compile it. Test executes the automated test cases, while deployment drops the build into its destination. It means using static analysis tools that check the portions of code that have been changed versus scanning the entire code base.
The People Monitor the Process and Respond to Process Failures
Training hardware and software developers regularly on new cyber-attack techniques and exploitation vectors is essential to application solution security. Security and quality assurance policies need to be promulgated among the team to make development standards unambiguous and clear for everyone. Defensive Coding Practices result in more complicated code but writing code while thinking how an attacker might think, reduces vulnerabilities, and therefore reduces risk.
All Levels of Management Must Be Involved
Individuals from government stakeholders, operations, security, and development teams must be encouraged to have a cyber-resilient mindset. If you are proactive and think like a cyber attacker, you would do things differently instead of explaining why an attack occurred. In the case of an extensive enterprise system, why bank accounts were drained, or an airplane hit the ground.
Adopting Cybersecurity Practices
Adopting cybersecurity practices such as continuous integration, continuous delivery, and constant distribution has dramatically accelerated the speed at which organizations release and update applications. Security is no longer something that can be bolted on at the end of the development cycle but must be started by a proactive organization.
This blog was written by Linda Rawson, of DynaGrace Enterprises (dynagrace.com). For further information, please connect with Linda on LinkedIn, or contact her at (800) 676-0058 ext 101.
#systemengineering #cybersecurity #cybersecurityawareness #DevSecOps #infosec #security #mindset
by Dr. Jane Fitzgerald | Oct 19, 2020 | Data Science, Information Technology
Why is Storytelling Essential in Business Intelligence?
For Business Intelligence, there is more beyond just portraying data. Expressing what data stands for is crucial since it is something that impacts every area of our lives daily.
Of course, it has become more vital for business organizations to know how to manage and effectively use larger data sources. However, obtaining the inherent benefits is also crucial, through data exploitation by way of storytelling.
Why tell stories in business?
Storytelling is the best way businesses can improve Business Intelligence (BI) visual Analytical tools such as
Image Credit: Flickr
Dashboards. Storytelling helps to interpret and explain the components (e.g., tables or graphs) of such visualization tools.
Nothing moves people better than stories. They do not only inform listeners but also inspire positive actions. Professionally constructed data stories help turn the primary data, the dispersion diagram, and the bar diagrams into compelling, actionable messages.
Like Steve Job aptly put it, “the most powerful person in the entire world is none but the storyteller.”
Data scientists and the people responsible for managing data may find their data results obvious, but what about their target audience? Businesses can close that wide gap in knowledge and employ analytical logic to guide their audience to align more with the company’s aims and objectives.
Let’s get one thing straight! Data storytelling is not the easiest of tasks. However, it is one thing business management teams cannot ignore. Businesses’ ability to tell stories with their data is now a necessary analytical skill in business best practice.
What are the requirements for effective data storytelling projects?
The basic requirements you need to make your business intelligence storytelling a successful project include tools like Microsoft Power Business Intelligence tool as a benchmark for data storytelling experience in the following order ;
Image Credit: Needpix
Flexible Transition
It is not easy to export visualizations from one given source to another to create a great BI story. The process does not only take time, but the analytical tools used for exploration and creation of data visualizations are different from those used to create BI stories. The tools’ differences also reduce the chances of embedding the annotations or metadata generated during the analysis.
For creators to export it, the storytelling setting comprises the metadata. Then analysis instantly converted under fluid and integrated processes to reduce the time and effort needed, which is what Microsoft Power BI guarantees.
Integration
BI story creators must have the right tools that help in combining all the necessary materials to produce their story. These materials include interactive visualizations, BI reports, and smart ways of indicating the story’s structure, a sequence in story presentation, highlighting capabilities, and more. Microsoft Power BI in MS PowerPoint embedded these requirements.
Focusing tools
These tools help achieve visual narrating, focusing on drawing attention towards particular visualization data, such as annotating, coloring, highlighting, and zooming (in and out). With Microsoft Power BI, you have full customization for compelling storytelling.
Interactive visualization
MS Power BI, you can achieve efficient visualization in the narrations that you shared. It also gives you full control regarding what pages can be viewed by users taking part in the report sharing process.
Reusing similar story structure
While BI data and report changes from one analysis to the other, the stories’ structure remains virtually unchanged. Therefore, users must be able to reuse the same story structure created in the same tool. As usual, MS Power BI makes provision for this.
Conclusion
With the right tools at your disposal, your business can achieve an effective BI storytelling project through the MS Power BI tool. It will make customers aware and keep your target audience engage with your business message.
by Dr. Jane Fitzgerald | Apr 2, 2020 | Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Emerging Technology, Information Technology
Image from Forbes.com
Artificial Intelligence, AI, has been integrated into mainstream society, so much so, that most people use it almost every hour of every day without even noticing. My first experience with AI was through cyborgs in movies and I know some people will go immediately to the killer AI, Skynet, from the Terminator movie franchise. However, the reality is, AI is a more complex and diverse field than just murderous machines from the future.
Social Media
We interact with Artificial Intelligence every day, for example, social media: the main application that utilizes this technology. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, they use AI to keep tabs on their users and target ads for any content they are advertising. Even Google’s algorithm is a form of artificial intelligence that helps us all find what we need online in an instant. Next time you use google search when you are halfway through typing, stop and take a look at the suggestions it provides. More often than not, it typically pulls like searches from around the world, but it also takes past searches and websites you have visited previously drawing conclusions for suggested web pages. A perfect example of one form of AI in our lives, and a form some of us could not live without.
AI That Moves You
A commonly missed version of AI would be that which is built into our vehicles, from giving us new routes or accurate directions to vehicles that even drive themselves. Self-driving cars are here and wildly popular; while much of that technology is used in expensive vehicles, it is making its way to the inexpensive models. For example: many newer vehicles can stop if the car in front stops unexpectedly, what a great use of AI. Not only that, but AI is also utilized to help people take different routes to and from their destinations based on traffic patterns, just as google draws conclusions for suggested web pages, AI frequently saves time via alternate routes while driving. AI is everywhere!!
AI Fears
Some people have raised concerns with the rapid rate of development of AI, the fear that they are invading our privacy. This fear is justifiable when most of our first interactions with this technology are Hollywood blockbusters with murderous AI’s that try to wipe out all humanity, but let’s remember AI is more than that. This popular movie premise has some people living off the grid to avoid all intelligence, but it is important to remember, good or bad we are making great strides and our nation is prosperous, in part, due to those strides in AI. At the end of the day, AI can scare you, it can inspire you, or it can do a bit of both, but the decision to accept AI into our life is up to us!
https://www.tech21century.com/how-ai-has-influenced-our-society/
Biometric Identification and Cybersecurity
by Rachel D | Oct 8, 2019 | Cybersecurity, Information Technology
What is Biometric Identification?
Biometric Identification is the latest in cybersecurity. Biometric Identification Techniques use the unique identifiers of the human body to recognize who a person is. Until recently, biometric identification might have seemed like the stuff out of science fiction movies, but it is quickly becoming commonplace. In fact, many people use it to unlock their own cell phones. That’s right, unlocking your phone by touching your finger to the home button is a type of biometric identification. Newer versions of the IPhone also use face recognition as a security measure–another form of biometric identification. So what is biometric identification and what are some of the most commonly used techniques.
Common Techniques
Fingerprint Image Processing
Fingerprint Image Processing is the oldest biometric identification technique and the one many people are most familiar with. If you have worked in a government job, you have likely had images taken of your fingerprints. Additionally, crime scene investigators have been using fingerprint identification for a long time. It is quick and easy, but there are some roadblocks that come with it. Although it is not easy, fingerprint images can be forged.
Facial Recognition
Facial recognition is perhaps the most human-like biometric identification technique, as it is the one humans use on a regular basis. We are used to recognizing people from their faces. This technique simply teaches computers to do the same. Despite the simplicity of it, unfortunately accuracy is low at this point. There is plenty of research into this technique, though, so we may see improvements in the near future.
Voice Analysis
Voice analysis is an inexpensive biometric identification technique, but one of the easiest techniques to forge. Many high quality voice recordings have tricked voice analysis software, so it is best to use this technique in conjunction with another for top security.
Iris Scanning
Image by Pexels
Iris scanning is a biometric identification technique that is becoming more popular in the cybersecurity community. There are some major disadvantages, though. Some users have complained the machine is uncomfortable and unhygienic, due to having to place your chin on a chin rest that is used frequently by numerous people. There have also been instances where a high quality picture of a person’s eye has been able to trick iris scanners.
Retina Scanning
Retina scans are similar to iris scans, but much more difficult to fake with a picture, due to the retina’s location in the eye. Although retina scans are more secure, they are also highly expensive. Due to the retina scans high level of accuracy; those with top security needs may choose to use it. Due to the cost, however, every day use of this technique is not likely in the near future.
Palm Vein Pattern Recognition
Photo by Jordan Whitfield on Unsplash
Another high cost-high accuracy technique is the Palm Vein Pattern Recognition. It is virtually impossible to fake the palm vein patterns of another person. An infrared scanner looks at the patterns beneath the skin on your palm. This technique is great for high security needs, however, it too comes with a high price tag. Companies with high cybersecurity needs may want to prioritize this technique.
Rachel Dalrymple is a content writer, marketing specialist, and M.B.A. candidate at Utah Valley University.
