Search Results for: medical

Three Paper Thursday: Exploring the Impact of Online Crime Victimization

Academic papers, Cybercrime, Security psychology, Three Paper Thursday

Just as in other types of victimization, victims of cybercrime can experience serious consequences, emotional or not. First of all, a repeat victim of a cyber-attack might face serious financial or emotional hardship. These victims are also more likely to require medical attention as a consequence of online fraud victimization. This means repeat victims have a … Continue reading Three Paper Thursday: Exploring the Impact of Online Crime Victimization →

Happy Birthday FIPR!

Academic papers, Cybercrime, Electronic voting, Internet censorship, Legal issues, News coverage, Politics, Security economics

On May 29th there will be a lively debate in Cambridge between people from NGOs and GCHQ, academia and Deepmind, the press and the Cabinet Office. Should governments be able to break the encryption on our phones? Are we entitled to any privacy for our health and social care records? And what can be done … Continue reading Happy Birthday FIPR! →

Making security sustainable

Academic papers, Legal issues, News coverage, Politics, Security economics, Security engineering

Making security sustainable is a piece I wrote for Communications of the ACM and has just appeared in the Privacy and security column of their March issue. Now that software is appearing in durable goods, such as cars and medical devices, that can kill us, software engineering will have to come of age. The notion … Continue reading Making security sustainable →

End of privacy rights in the UK public sector?

Uncategorized

There has already been serious controversy about the “Henry VIII” powers in the Brexit Bill, which will enable ministers to rewrite laws at their discretion as we leave the EU. Now Theresa May’s government has sneaked a new “Framework for data processing in government” into the Lords committee stage of the new Data Protection Bill … Continue reading End of privacy rights in the UK public sector? →

Is this research ethical?

Academic papers, Legal issues, News coverage, Politics, Privacy technology, Security psychology

The Economist features face recognition on its front page, reporting that deep neural networks can now tell whether you’re straight or gay better than humans can just by looking at your face. The research they cite is a preprint, available here. Its authors Kosinski and Wang downloaded thousands of photos from a dating site, ran … Continue reading Is this research ethical? →

Compartmentation is hard, but the Big Data playbook makes it harder still

Legal issues, News coverage, Operating systems, Security engineering, Usability

A new study of Palantir’s systems and business methods makes sobering reading for people interested in what big data means for privacy. Privacy scales badly. It’s OK for the twenty staff at a medical practice to have access to the records of the ten thousand patients registered there, but when you build a centralised system … Continue reading Compartmentation is hard, but the Big Data playbook makes it harder still →

Regulatory capture

Banking security, Cybercrime, Legal issues, News coverage, Politics, Security economics, Security psychology

Today’s newspapers report that the cladding on the Grenfell Tower, which appears to have been a major factor in the dreadful loss of life there, was banned in Germany and permitted in America only for low-rise buildings. It would have cost only £2 more per square meter to use fire-resistant cladding instead. The tactical way … Continue reading Regulatory capture →

When safety and security become one

Academic papers, Legal issues, Open-source security, Operating systems, Security economics, Security engineering

What happens when your car starts getting monthly upgrades like your phone and your laptop? It’s starting to happen, and the changes will be profound. We’ll be able to improve car safety as we learn from accidents, and fixing a flaw won’t mean spending billions on a recall. But if you’re writing navigation code today … Continue reading When safety and security become one →

Government U-turn on Health Privacy

Legal issues, News coverage, Politics, Privacy technology

Now that everyone’s distracted with the supreme court case on Brexit, you can expect the government to sneak out something it’s ashamed of. Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has decided to ignore the wishes of over a million people who opted out of having their hospital records given to third parties such as drug companies, and … Continue reading Government U-turn on Health Privacy →

Award-winning case history of the care.data health privacy scandal

Academic papers, Awards, Legal issues, News coverage, Politics, Privacy technology

Each year we divide our masters of public policy students into teams and get them to write case studies of public policy failures. The winning team this year wrote a case study of the care.data fiasco. The UK government collected personal health information on tens of millions of people who had had hospital treatment in … Continue reading Award-winning case history of the care.data health privacy scandal →