November 2012

Cybercriminals gained confidence and momentum in 2012. To help organizations prepare for next year, Websense Security Labs announced seven predictions for the 2013 threat landscape:

1. Mobile devices will be the new target for cross-platform threats.
2. Cybercriminals will use bypass methods to avoid traditional sandbox detection.
3. Legitimate mobile app stores will host more malware in 2013.
4. Government-sponsored attacks will increase as new players enter.
5. Expect hacktivists to move to the next level as simplistic opportunities dwindle.
6. Malicious emails are making a comeback.
7. Cybercriminals will follow the crowds to legitimate content management systems and web platforms.

The U.S. is not alone among high-income nations in its efforts to push health information technology use to primary-care providers, according to results of a recent survey by the Commonwealth Fund.

Nor is the U.S. alone in its struggle to achieve interoperability of systems and the free exchange of healthcare information, the surveyors found. A "high percentage" of the nearly 8,500 physicians surveyed across the 10 nations covered by the survey "reported that they did not routinely receive timely information from specialists or hospitals," while feedback loops providing physicians with data about their own performance "varied notably" between countries, according to a report, "A Survey of Primary Care Doctors in Ten Countries Shows Progress in Use of Health Information Technology, Less in Other Areas," appearing online in the policy journal Health Affairs. In addition to physicians in the U.S., the surveyors plied their primary-care counterparts in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and the U.K., asking them about their concerns regarding the use of health IT and communications across care sites and feedback on practice performance, as well as patient access to care, healthcare system capacity and their overall satisfaction with practicing medicine in that system. U.S. physicians were the most likely to complain about the time spent "grappling with insurance restrictions” and noted that "their patients often went without care because of costs," the report said.

The report authors note that eight of the 10 countries surveyed provide financial incentives for patients to seek out primary-care providers, ranging from full coverage with no cost sharing in Canada, the Netherlands and the U.K. to "modest" cost-sharing in the five other countries. But Switzerland and the U.S. are cost outliers; there, "patients often face substantial deductibles as well as cost-sharing," although income assistance and out-of-pocket limits in Switzerland reduce financial liability for Swiss patients "to levels well below those in the United States."

Every few months, Google offers its Power Searching with Google class, which consists of six 50-minute classes split up into 5 to 10 minute YouTube clips. Each and every lesson is taught by Google research scientist (and Search expert) Dan Russell from the same couch, with the same Macbook, wearing the same light blue buttoned down shirt. It's monotony just like a real-live class! Also, like a true place of learning, there is homework. An activity follows each clip, going over (and testing) the information just discussed. There is also a mid-term and a final, which are graded. (If the prospect of limitless shame at not passing your Google Search final doesn't motivate you, nothing will.) And, in order to get a certificate (to hang on your Facebook wall?), you must complete these assessments on time.

MetroPCS is expected to file a proxy on its sale to Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile USA to the Securities and Exchange Commission in coming days. The document should include the financial projections of the combined company as well as background about the deal, including MetroPCS’s interactions with other companies prior to the agreement. The background section “includes everything that we’ve been working on for the last year and a half,” MetroPCS’s Chief Financial Officer Braxton Carter said. “I think it will be a fascinating read for a lot of people.” Don’t expect the company to name names on other possible partners. (More typical are references to the likes of “company A, company B.”) But a guessing game could ensue on who is behind various references.