Can they really read shredded documents??

DARPA is interested in knowing what’s in the shredder. DARPA has set up a challenge to find new ways to piece together shredded documents fast.  Read on from the pages of DARPA’s official website:

Welcome to DARPA’s Shredder Challenge!

Today’s troops often confiscate the remnants of destroyed documents in war zones, but reconstructing them is a daunting task. DARPA’s Shredder Challenge calls upon computer scientists, puzzle enthusiasts and anyone else who likes solving complex problems to compete for up to $50,000 by piecing together a series of shredded documents.

The goal is to identify and assess potential capabilities that could be used by our warfighters operating in war zones, but might also create vulnerabilities to sensitive information that is protected through our own shredding practices throughout the U.S. national security community.

Do you have the skills to reconstruct shredded documents and solve the puzzle?

Can you form a team to help solve the complex physical and analytical problems associated with document reconstruction?

If so, register today for a chance to win $50,000!

The Shredder Challenge is comprised of five separate puzzles in which the number of documents, the document subject matter and the method of shredding will be varied to present challenges of increasing difficulty. To complete each problem, participants must provide the answer to a puzzle embedded in the content of the reconstructed document.

The overall prizewinner and prize awarded will depend on the number and difficulty of the problems solved. DARPA will release the challenge problems on October 27, 2011 at 12:00 PM Eastern and announce a winner the week of December 5, 2011 once final results are calculated.

The Scan Man notes that it is possible to destroy paper via services provided by my my favorite DC area shredded, TrueShred.

VA, DoD moving toward SOA as iEHR takes shape

The Scan Man sees the move towards standards that will be immediately utilized in a significant manner as a big leap forward for integrated health records.  There are many issues yet to be solved, however their is no way to deny that these integrated health records will improve patient outcomes.  From the pages of Goverment Health IT:

ALEXANDRIA, VA – The Defense and Veterans Affairs Departments are much more alike in the healthcare services they deliver than they are different. That is critical as they build the components of their integrated electronic health record (iEHR), which will be based on common services applications instead of a large proprietary technology system, said Mark Goodge, chief technology officer of the Military Health System.

“We’ve done the mapping of what the VA and DOD do, and we’re so much alike, about 98 percent alike. There are some things that are different, like theater [battle operations] for us and long-term beneficiary care that VA does,” he said atan Oct. 12 conference sponsored by Defense Strategies Institute.

[Reader poll: Control an issue for open source piece of joint DoD/VA EHR.]

VA and DOD will shift their clinical systems to a modern architecture of standards, applications, databases and middleware based on common services and a Web-based interface, which will be able to operate with the legacy as well as the new iEHR capabilities as they become available. Both departments will contribute services to the platform and use each other’s services.

“We’re getting more common about what common is, defining terms and working internally within our agencies and with our partners,” Goodge said. For example, mapping and defining the services used to adopt the Health Level 7 standard can enable the quick exchange of information about a patient’s allergies and other summary data.

The Military Health System is moving toward service-oriented architecture (SOA) and away from siloed systems as plans take shape for the iEHR, he said. A lot needs to be put in place or streamlined. “We have a big portfolio with a lot of services and some are duplicates,” he said.

An important piece of the iEHR architecture will be a common services broker, which provides the interconnections among various applications and services and enables internal and external systems to exchange information, said Peter Levin, VA chief technology officer.

[Q&A: Between the lines of NEJM's EHR report, 'trust trumps tech'.]

Those services will be able to be unplugged and replaced when better ones become available over time. The common services broker is made up of an enterprise services bus and associated standards.

“The common services broker is like a socket and the enterprise services bus is the power line,” he said.

The shared graphical user interface (GUI), which has been in testing since July, will unify what clinicians see even as the iEHR’s functions and systems change.

One of the functions VA is considering developing is automated medication reconciliation with the pharmacy data from both departments’ systems, Levin said. The GUI as designed presents consolidated data, but clinicians need more information about medications that the patient has been prescribed to avoid adverse reactions or allergies.

VA has also established an open source agent and community to accept code contributions and foster innovation. Among its activities, OSEHRA will serve as a certifying agent of applications that innovators may want to sell or give to the code base. DOD is part of the community.

[Related: Building a mammoth federal EHR, tech is the easy part.]

VA and DOD are also collaborating on how to identify patients, which will be a common service of the iEHR, said Janine Groth, director of the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System in the Defense Manpower Data Center.

Currently, the DOD’s and VA’s EHRs use several identity management processes. “Where we’re going is unified patient identity management capability between the DOD and VA, incrementally,” she said.

VA has agreed to use DOD’s Electronic Data Interchange Personal Identifier (EDIPI), which is assigned to individuals upon entrance to military service, for its health and benefits records and VA ID cards. DOD has started using the EDIPI to replace the Social Security number in its ID cards and technologies, Groth said.

http://govhealthit.com/news/va-military-health-ctos-describe-iehr-common-services

Defense Dept. hit with $4.9B lawsuit over data breach

The Scan Man is mystified by how badly this federal contractor mishandled Protected Health Information.  Under HIPAA, this data must be encrypted during transfer.  This is crucial when transporting data in vehicles.  Check out my favorite tool, TrueCrypt.  From the pages of Computerworld, read on:

Proposed class action suit involves TRICARE, seeks $1,000 per victim

Computerworld - The U.S. Department of Defense has been hit with a $4.9 billion lawsuit over a recently disclosed data breach involving TRICARE, a healthcare system for active and retired military personnel and their families.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington D.C. this week by four people whose data was allegedly compromised, seeks $1000 in damages for each of the 4.9 million individuals affected by the breach.

The suit charges TRICARE, the Department and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta with failing to adequately protect private data and of “intentional, willful and reckless disregard” for patient privacy rights.

TRICARE did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

In the complaint, the four plaintiffs faulted TRICARE for failing to properly encrypt the private data in its possession and for taking too long to notify victims of the breach.

The four plaintiffs are Virginia Gaffney, a Hampton, Va.-based individual who described herself in court papers as the spouse of a decorated war veteran; her two children; and Adrienne Taylor, a Glendale, Az. Based Air Force veteran.

TRICARE in September disclosed that sensitive data including Social Security Numbers, names, addresses, phone numbers and personal health data belonging to about 4.9 million active and retired U.S. military personnel may have been compromised after unencrypted backup tapes containing the data went missing.

The information on the tapes was from an electronic healthcare application used to capture patient data. The backup tapes were stolen from the car of an employee at Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), a TRICARE contractor. The breach affects all those who received care at the military’s San Antonio area military treatment facilities between 1992 and Sept. 7. 2011.

Lawsuits such as this one have become increasingly common in the immediate aftermath of a major data breach.

Earlier this month, for instance, Stanford Hospital and Clinics was hit with a $20 million proposed class action lawsuit for a data breach involving a third-party contractor. And major breaches such as the ones at Heartland Payment Systems, TJX and Hannaford Bros. have all prompted their share of consumer lawsuits charging the companies with negligence, breach of contract and other charges.

In many cases, courts however have tended to dismiss lawsuits in data breach cases. Several courts have held that consumers cannot claim compensatory or punitive damages in data breach cases unless they can demonstrate that they have suffered actual monetary damage as the result of a breach.

The notion that someone might become the victim of ID theft in future because of a data breach cannot be used as a basis for claims, courts have held.

One exception was in the Heartland case, where the company agreed to pay $4 million to settle claims stemming from several class-action lawsuits.

Jaikumar Vijayan covers data security and privacy issues, financial services security and e-voting for Computerworld. Follow Jaikumar on Twitter at @jaivijayan or subscribe to Jaikumar’s RSS feed . His e-mail address isjvijayan@computerworld.com.

The iPad saves lives from above

The Scan Man is friendly with a Virginia Air Rescue helicopter pilot, and yesterday we were comparing iPad apps.  I did not realize that rescue pilots have already ditched the paper charts in favor of the iPad for quicker, more accurate response to emergency.  Here’s a couple of interesting apps:

Flight Guide iEFB

Airguide Publications is proud to offer a powerful application for Apple’s revolutionary iPad—Flight Guide iEFB. Special Data Plans are available for both VFR & IFR pilots.

Our VFR Standard Data Plan includes all of our high quality airport & supplementary information, nearly 5000airport diagrams, Fuel Prices, Class B, C & selected D Airspace Charts, On & Off field info as well as all the pertinent information that has made Flight Guide a staple in GA for over 50 years! Additionally, this plan provides Flight Planning and Moving Map capability on our Seamless WAC & Sectionals (Using any iPad compatible GPS device) and includes Terminal Area Charts (TACs) to satisfy FAA requirements. Individual non-seamless sectional charts, which include the “panel” information, are also available. Current NOTAMs, METAR/ TAF & Wind info is available for each airport. The VFR Standard Data Plan provides updates for the lower 48 states. Textual data for each airport can be updated and stored daily on your iPad’s hard drive using Flight Guide iEFB’s ”On-The- Fly” auto update feature! For even more situational awareness, the VFR Plus Data Plan additionally includes geo-referenced Flight Guide airport diagrams for real-time aircraft positioning.

Our IFR Standard Data Plan contains everything the VFR Standard Data Plan provides with the addition of IAPs, DPs, STARs, Take-Off, Radar and Alternate Minimums, IFR Seamless and Non- Seamless Low & High Enroute charts with expanded chart coverage for Alaska, Hawaii and the Caribbean. The IFR Plus Data Plan additionally includes Flight Guide’s nearly 5000 geo-referenced airport diagrams and geo-referenced IAPs for real-time aircraft positioning.

All charts, IAP’s & Flight Guide’s nearly 5000 airport diagrams are geo-referenced for “Moving Map” capability using any iPad compatible GPS device including Flight Guide’s FLY-Wi GPS. All charts, plates and airport diagrams can be zoomed in or out using Apple’s standard “pan, pinch & drag” interface. Hyper-linked airports on any chart will instantly bring up that airport’s IAPs and IFR data as well as all Flight Guide trusted airport information. This would include: airport diagrams (with taxiways identified & right-hand traffic pattern depicted), Class B, C & selected D airspace graphics, frequencies (navigation & communication), flight operational information, FBOs (services, location & contact information), current & nearby fuel prices, food, transportation, lodging and recreational information. In turn, the airport information page contains a link back to that airport’s location on all VFR and IFR charts. With an internet connection, METAR/TAF & Winds are available on the airport information page.

With Flight Guide iEFB, lugging around heavy and costly paper charts is a thing of the past. Lighten your load and enjoy the savings with Flight Guide iEFB for the Apple iPad. Flight Guide iEFB is the easiest way to stay FAA compliant, with thousands of airports and charts, in one amazing device. The Flight Guide iEFB App is availableFREE through the Apple App Store. Monthly Data Plans range from $9.99 to $19.99 per month and are purchased only through the Flight Guide iEFB App itself on your iPad. Annual Data Plans give you the added value of paying for only 10 months and receiving 2 MONTHS FREE! Annual data plans are purchased only through the flightguide.comwebsite.

For those who are worried about the basic GPS built into the iPad, there is aviation grade GPS for the iPad.  Flight Guide FLY-Wi GPS

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

Email slips as ediscovery target says Symantec

When the Scan Man works with local eDiscovery firms on legal cases, I think it is unusual to find the really good stuff in the email, however the email often points to a document with the goods.  Read this interesting article from the pages of Image & Data Manager:

What is the first that your opposing party will target in an ediscovery request? If you answered email, that is wrong according respondents to to a new survey from Symantec who selected files and documents (67 percent), and database or application data (61 percent) ahead of email (58 percent).

Symantec’s 2011 Information Retention and eDiscovery Survey contacted  2000 Enterprises from 28 countries with over 1000 employees. It examinined how they manage their ever-growing volumes of electronically stored information and prepare for the eventuality of an eDiscovery request.

“The fact that email is no longer the primary source of information for an eDiscovery request is a significant change from what has been the norm over the past several years,” said Dean Gonsowski, eDiscovery Counsel at Symantec.

“With the wide variety of sources in play, including loose documents, structured data, SharePoint content and even social media, it is not enough for legal and IT to simply focus upon email alone. It’s critical for the two departments to work together to develop and implement an effective information retention policy.”

More than half indicated SharePoint files (51 percent), and nearly half cited instant messages and text messages (44 percent) and social media (41 percent).

The survey found wide variations in information retention practices among enterprises. Companies that employ best practices, such as automating the placement of legal holds and leveraging an archiving tool instead of relying on backups, fare dramatically better when it comes to responding to an eDiscovery request. These top- tier companies are 81 percent more likely to have a formal retention plan in place; 63 percent more likely to automate legal holds; and 50 percent more likely to use a formal archiving tool.

Despite the risks, the survey found nearly half of respondents do not have an information retention plan in place. Thirty percent are only discussing how to do so, and 14 percent have no plan to do so. When asked why, respondents indicated lack of need (41 percent); too costly (38 percent); nobody has been chartered with that responsibility (27 percent); don’t have time (26 percent); and lack of expertise (21 percent) are top reasons.

The Final ‘Kodak Moment’: 5 Reasons Why Bankruptcy Would Be Tragic

The Scan Man is worried about Kodak!  We are authorized to sell many brands, but we have been standardized on Kodak in our scanning operations center for 5 years, and we love our Kodak scanners and software.  From the pages of the International Business Times:

Kodak HQ

Long-suffering investors may wonder what to do with their Kodak shares now that they’ve fallen to the unbelievable low of only 78 cents, a huge change compared to the days when Eastman Kodak was one of the bluest of the blue chips. In 2003, Kodak was valued at $40 per share.

The name alone conjured images and photography. Consumers from Utah to Uruguay bought Kodak cameras and film and took it to camera shops for development. Doctors’ offices took x-rays with diagnostic cameras and printed them out on Kodak paper. Names like Kodachrome were household words.

Yet on Friday, shares plunged as much as 60 percent after reports the company was on the verge of pulling the plug. When the NYSE closed, Kodak’s market capitalization had shriveled to only $186 million. Its enterprise value, which accounts for other assets, is a slightly better $948.7 million.

Meanwhile, because of its 131-year history and prestige in imaging innovation, Kodak has been trying to haul in cash via an auction of its valuable patents. Technology investment bankers involved with the deal have told IBTimes the patents could be worth somewhere between $2 billion and $3 billion — more than the entire company!

After the close on Friday, Rochester, N.Y.-based Kodak issued a statement that it was not planning to file for bankruptcy but had hired the prestigious law firm Jones Day for advice. You can bet senior management led by CEO Antonio Perez and lawyers at Jones Day are trying to determine the next step.

The decision is clear: either try to keep going or file for bankruptcy, which is no shame for an ordinary company, but quite a tragedy for the corporation that for years had huge success with its “Kodak moment” ad campaign.

Here are five reasons why pulling the plug would be an American tragedy:

It would show that a ninetheenth century pioneer couldn’t make it in the twenty-first century. There are plenty of other old industrial companies founded by people like Thomas Edison and Henry Ford that are doing fine, that managed to adapt to changes in the marketplace and alter its strategy. Yet Kodak foundered for years with foolish acquisitions (it bought Sterling Drug, which included Bayer aspirin in 1988 before getting out in 1994) and divestitures like spinning off Eastman Chemicals (now with a market capitalization of $4.8 billion).

Now that everyone has a mobile phone, and tablets like the iPad and and the Kindle Fire are going to revolutionize photography and imaging, Kodak ought to be the life of the party. That could be one reason why the likes of Apple, Amazon and Google are said to be looking at the patents.

Kodak’s demise would be Japan’s gain. Today, Japanese rivals — like Fuji (film); Canon, Nikon and Olympus (cameras); and Panasonic and Sony (consumer electronics) — are ubiquitous in all kinds of imaging. To be sure, they have great technologies and sales abilities, but those are all things they learned from Kodak.

If Kodak does seek bankruptcy and then asks Lazard for help in selling off units, these companies would be first in line to pick up the valuable pieces.

It would prove that even a perception of value was wrong. Several years ago, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the private equity giant that may be best known for masterminding the RJRNabisco buyout, bought into Kodak and won two seats on the board. Obviously, KKR wouldn’t have risked its cash for no reason. But it also bought into Sun Microsystems late in its history, too. Sun Microsystems has now been absorbed into Oracle.

Bankruptcy would place Kodak in the same league as GM, Chrysler, United Airlines and others. All those great companies emerged slimmer and better-placed to win after bankruptcy. Conceivably, Kodak could emerge as solely an intellectual property vendor and get rid of all its consumer and professional products lines.

Printers could go to Hewlett-Packard, Lexmark or Canon. Kodak Gallery could go to Amazon or eBay. The camera lines could go to a Japanese company. The retail distribution system might be sold to specialists or the likes of FedEx or UPS.

Or maybe a judge could demand a complete shake-up and tell CEO Antonio Perez that he has a year to act. That would be tricky in what still looks like a weak global economy.

It would give New York a black eye. Few industrial companies are so identified with their home states and cities as Kodak is with Rochester, N.Y. Xerox, which started there and had its own near-death experience, still has a big Rochester presence but shifted its headquarters to Stamford, Ct.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo last month jubilantly snatched up $4 billion in technology investment from New York’s own IBM as well as from Intel, GlobalFoundries, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing andSamsung Electronics. The money is largely for new chips and nanotechnology development, things that Kodak could benefit from.

The collapse of a technology icon would surely dampen investment attitude. It would also call into question the future of 18,800 employees, not all of whom are in New York.