April 2018

Illinois, law, privacy, regulation

Illinois to revisit BIPA law?

Illinois Considering Amendments to Biometric Privacy Law (BIPA) That Would Create Major Exemptions to Its Scope (Proskauer.com)

“Biometric privacy remains an important issue, as facial recognition and other biometric technologies are increasingly in use. As such, it is desirable to find a balance between privacy and security while at the same time allowing companies to use the advances in biometrics in productive ways. Some argue that the Illinois law, in its present form, fails to strike that balance. It appears that some of the Illinois legislators have heard that argument and are trying to correct any imbalance that the law might present. Given what’s at stake, we will closely follow these legislative developments.”

Proskauer Rose, the source of the linked article, is an international law firm with offices in Chicago. The full piece has a lot of links to more information on the Illinois BIPA law. Read the whole thing, especially if you’re interested in biometrics, privacy, or in business in Illinois.

Our previous posts touching on the Illinois BIPA law can be found here.

children, face, India

Facial Recognition System Helps Trace 3,000 Missing Children In 4 Days

The identities of the missing children have been established and efforts are on to help them reunite with their families. (NDTV – India)

“New Delhi: Nearly 3,000 missing children have been traced in four days, thanks to the facial recognition system (FRS) software that the Delhi Police is using on a trial basis to track down such children.

The identities of the missing children have been established and efforts are on to help them reunite with their families.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), in an affidavit to the high court, said that the Delhi Police, on a trial basis, used the FRS on 45,000 children living in different children’s homes. Of them, 2,930 children could be recognised between April 6 and April 10.”

A heartwarming story with a dose of local politics.

adoption, survey

More secure and more convenient

Research shows organisations turning to biometrics (Planet Biometrics)

“The research, based on survey results from 200 U.S. senior IT decision makers, outlines how there is a lack of confidence of passwords alone to secure data sufficiently while highlighting how organizations are moving towards biometrics to better safeguard their most critical assets.”

“Harnessing the Power of Biometrics: The overwhelming majority of respondents agree that biometrics is the most secure authentication method for both organizations (86%) and consumers (86%) to use. Respondents believe the main reasons for using biometric authentication include overall better security (63%), increased workforce productivity (54%) and better accessibility (50%).”

Usually, increasing security decreases convenience. Biometric solutions offer a rare chance for organizations to increase security and convenience at the same time and senior IT staff are starting to embrace the opportunity.

 

Event, FaceTrac, healthcare, security

Securlinx at IAHSS in Chicago

Securlinx, is on the ground in Chicago to take part in the International Association for Healthcare Security & Safety (IAHSS) annual conference and to demonstrate the newest version of our FaceTrac facial recognition software. We’ll be in booth #601 today and tomorrow.

IAHSS is dedicated to professionals involved in managing and directing security and safety programs in healthcare facilities.

 

cyber security, ID assurance, strategic partnership

Securlinx Enters into Strategic Partnership with REMTCS

Through the partnership, Securlinx and REMTCS will join forces to solve critical security challenges for companies. Securlinx will provide a “whitelist” and enterprise-wide authentication of trusted users outside the customer’s firewall, while REMTCS will provide superior protection against threats inside the firewall by killing viruses and “blacklisting” sites circulating malware. Both companies will also help protect clients against ransomware attacks. The software offerings of both companies are fully integrated to work in conjunction with each other.

Read our entire press release here.

hack, healthcare, ID assurance, Industry News, IoT

The healthcare Internet of Things: Promise and Risks

Exposed Devices and Supply Chain Attacks: Overlooked Risks in Healthcare Networks (Trend Micro)

“We discovered exposed medical systems — including those that store medical-related images, healthcare software interfaces, and even misconfigured hospital networks — which should not be viewable publicly. While a device or system being exposed does not necessarily mean that it is vulnerable, exposed devices and systems can potentially be used by cybercriminals and other threat actors to penetrate into organizations, steal data, run botnets, install ransomware, and so on. Furthermore, it shows that a massive amount of sensitive information is publicly available when they shouldn’t be.”

The article linked above and the companion Trend Micro blog post, along with the entire 61 page pdf report (available here) do a really good job of covering the range of threats confronting healthcare networks today.

The internet of things (IoT) offers so much of benefit — remote monitoring, diagnosis, collaboration, home healthcare, devices, etc. — to healthcare providers and patients that it is inconceivable that it will be abandoned. There are, however, significant privacy and health outcome risks associated with putting practically every software application, sensor, device and record within reach of the internet.

How large healthcare providers harness the IoT for better care delivery while minimizing the associated risks will go a long way toward sorting out the winners and losers in the business of healthcare.

Cyber security, identity assurance, and training are of critical importance if the promise of the healthcare IoT is to be kept for healthcare providers and patients alike.

access control, healthcare, Industry News, logical, privacy

Security and adoption of online health record access

25% of Patients Did Not Access Data Over Patient Privacy Concerns (Health IT Security)

“Using National Cancer Institute survey data, the study found that 52 percent of US citizens were offered access to an online medical record by a healthcare provider or insurer in 2017, up from 42 percent in 2014. Of those who were offered access, 53 percent viewed their records at least once in the past year.

However, of the individuals offered access to online medical record, one-quarter did not access that information because of privacy/security concerns.”

So, is it fair to imply that up to 25% more patients would access their online health record if they were more confident in the security of their access to it?

database, IdentiTrac, NIST

Trusted identity management across the entire enterprise

NIST report, experts say security of IoT, mobile devices must be addressed (Biometric Update)

“Physical, sensing, actuating, computing and other security access control systems — including the spectrum of biometric usage such as biometric access and security systems; door, parking facilities, elevators, communication facilities, and rooms; occupant interface dashboards; and universal control and monitoring systems — are among the issues discussed in the recently released National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Interagency Report on Status of International Cybersecurity Standardization for the Internet of Things (IoT), prepared by the Interagency International Cybersecurity Standardization Working Group.”

Securlinx CEO Barry Hodge noted this morning:

IdentiTrac is the Securlinx flagship identity assurance platform that supports all of our ID management applications and integrates with users’ existing data infrastructure.

The source NIST draft report is available here:
Interagency Report on Status of International Cybersecurity Standardization for the Internet of Things (IoT) (NIST.gov)

forecast, healthcare

Market forecast: Biometrics in Healthcare 2018 – 2025

Healthcare Biometrics Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report (Grand View Research)

“The global healthcare biometrics market size was valued at USD 2.1 billion in 2016 and is expected to witness a CAGR of 24.2% over the forecast period. The major driving parameters attributing to the growth of this market are rising healthcare IT application combined with increasing awareness and demand for cyber security and biometric development catering to the healthcare facilities.”