#Premera Blue Cross Breach May have exposed 11 Million Customers'Medical And Financial Data Medical and financial data belonging to as many as 11 million Premera Blue Cross customers may have been exposed in a breach discovered on the same day as the Anthem breach, the health insurance company
announced Tuesday. Premera discovered the breach on January 29, 2015. Working with both Mandiant and the FBI to investigate the attack,
the company discovered that the initial attack occurred on May 5, 2014. Premera Blue Cross and Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska were impacted both
in addition to affiliate brands Vivacity and Connexion Insurance Solutions. Additionally, other Blue Cross Blue Shield customers in Washington and Alaska may have been affected by the breach.
A broad range of customer and applicant data may have been exposed in the attack, ranging from medical records
and bank account information to Social security numbers and dates of birth going back thirteen years. While Premera says it does not have evidence that the data was removed from the system or sed inappropriately,
the company is beginning to mail letters to affected customers today and is offering two years of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection.
Premera is the second health insurance provider to announce a major breach this year. On the same date as Premera, Anthem discovered a breach that affected nearly 80 million customers
whose Social security numbers were exposed in an attacked that began in April 2014. Anthem announced its breach on February 13, more than a month before Premera announcement today.
Unlike in the Premera breach, medical data and banking information were believed not to have been exposed in the Anthem breach.
Both Premera and Anthem described the attacks against their systems as ery sophisticated, and some believe the attacks may be linked to a state-sponsored attack out of China.
A wave of phishing attacks followed the announcement of the Anthem breach. In light of this
Premera is stressing that the company will not email or call customers about the breach. To protect against phishing attacks,
Premera members should avoid opening attachments and links or replying to emails about the breach.
Based in Mountlake Terrace, Washington, Premera is one of the largest health insurance providers in the Pacific Northwest, with $7. 6 billion in revenue in 2013 and 1. 8 million members in Washington and Alaska n
#3d printing And The Momentous Change For Africa's Amputees A stunning breakthrough has been achieved with 3d printing,
that will help amputees in Uganda and potentially across the developing world. A new method of creating prosthetic limb sockets has enabled a three-year-old child to be fitted quickly with a prosthetic limb and socket, at a fraction of the normal cost.
The charities and technologists involved expect the work to lead to a significant change in how patients are helped,
with costs eventually cut from $5, 000 to $250 per prosthetic fit. For the project
the University of Toronto is working with Christian Blind Mission a non-governmental organization that helps people with disabilities in developing countries as well as software supplier Autodesk ADSK+0. 17%and the Corsu rehabilitation hospital in Mpigi, Uganda.
Professor Matt Ratto, of the University of Toronto faculty of information, tells Forbes that 3d printing offers faster way to create prosthetics with the time to completion cut rom one week to approximately one
or two days The fit of such sockets is improved also something that was often a problem with traditional methods
and caused some wearers great discomfort. In order to create each fitting the plaster-based casting part is replaced with scanning and digital modeling,
and the thermoplastic moulding or fibreglass layout is replaced with 3d printing. A 3d scan of a residual limb can be sent within seconds to a prosthetist who can design a replacement,
sending that file back to the hospital be printed. Saving this time is vital, Professor Ratto explains,
because ven if the prosthetic limb and fitting is paid fully for by government of philanthropy,
it is difficult for people in a subsistence economy to leave their farms or jobs for a week to get it In addition,
he says, reducing the time lso means that the prosthetists in the developing world can produce more prosthetics
In order to operate the technology, the standard prosthetics skillset s still required but it does allow those with the skills to be more productive. ur toolchain includes an inexpensive 3d scanner, a standard laptop with our Socketmixer software,
and a home or small business type 3d printer, totalling about $6, 000 in value, he says.
In spite of the initial costs involved, the efficiency gains and quickly reduced cost of production make it a useful investment for hospitals.
And with the vailability of low-cost 3d scanning and printing technology and the development of new materials for 3d printing,
there is huge potential development for the future o
#At SXSW, Retail's Data-Driven Future Is On Display Apart from expanding to sell merchandise online,
most traditional retailers have not changed their business approach for decades. But customersexpectations have changed. For Jennifer Hyman, CEO and cofounder of online designer clothing rental company Rent the Runway,
this was an opportunity. Now a company valued at $220 million, Rent the Runway is attempting to be to retail
what Uber is to taxis: a new slant on an old industry that leverages data and analyticsnd puts power in the hands of its customers.
On Friday at SXSW Interactive, Hyman spoke on a panel along with Katrina Lake, founder and CEO of Stitch Fix, about the next-generation retail experience.
Both are built businesses on a keen understanding of the female fashion consumer. But Hyman pointed out that unlike the movie or music industries,
fashion does not have blockbusters: One style does not work for everyone. The ability to use data to make personalized recommendations to customers is critical.
In fact, the first C-level executive Hyman hired was a chief analytical officer because she understood that what the company was creating was data products. e use data to price by demand dress may be higher in the holiday season,
she said. ut we also understand that data is a precious asset we can use with our suppliers.
It a competitive asset for us to be a partner with our designers and let them know what young women are doing with their brand.
But another key aspect of Rent the Runway approach to its customers goes deeper than data
connecting with women at a visceral level. e have 5 million customers. On average, theye 30 and make $100, 000.
They describe themselves as smart. But a lot of marketing to women is based on a mentality that women don think theye good enough.
That ridiculous, Hyman said. ee proud of what we are, and we respond to brands that talk to us in that way.
As for the future? She said she hoped to see disruption in the shipping industry
so that the costs for online retailers will come down. And she envisions taking customer service to completely new levels,
enabled by her company focus on data, analytics, and incredibly efficient logistics. y dream is traveling without suitcases.
You check into your room, open the closet, and your wardrobe is all there, she said, to enthusiastic applause
#Can One-shot Syringes Save The World? Marc Koska has had shot a at saving the world; a single shot that has taken him 31 years.
Back in 1984 the Englishman, then a 23-year-old who spent much of his time yachting in the Caribbean,
was horrified like many others by the dire prediction that the newly-identified HIV virus could claim as many as 60 million lives.
Unlike many others, he decided to do something about it. Koska spent three years researching the issue,
reading everything he could find about the transmission of the virus, finding out how drug addicts used syringes
and traveling to immunization camps in Africa and to Geneva to learn about public health policy.
He concluded that the pressing need was an inexpensive non-reusable syringe, immersed himself in the intricacies of syringe design
and patents, toured syringe manufacturing plants and studied plastic injection moulding techniques. Thirty one years later he found himself in Geneva again in February
when he watched as the World Health Organisation executed only the third Global Health Initiative in its 67-year history.
Its edict that only curative health programmes using auto-disable syringes and safety needles will receive WHO funding after 2020 should radically reduce infections caused by dirty syringes.
Dr Selma Khamassi, head of THE WHO team for injection safe, told BBC News that the new policy will hopefully help eliminate the 1. 7million new Hepatitis b cases
300,000 cases of hepatitis C and 35,000 new cases of HIV each year, as well as other infections. t was one of the proudest days in my life,
says Koska. o hear the head of THE WHO giving this the push that she did was phenomenal.
I had a tear in my eye at one point. Koska invention in 1996 of the K1 auto-disable syringe has led the way.
The syringes of his Star company are made of the same materials as conventional syringes, manufactured on tooling
and assembly equipment that already existed and used in exactly the same way as traditional syringes. t looks
and behaves exactly like a normal syringe, he says. t uses 95 per cent of the same manufacturing equipment that makes a traditional syringe
and when using it you do everything you would do with a normal syringe. But if you try to reuse it after that,
it locks and then snaps and breaks in half. We have sold nearly five billion of these
and we have heard never of an instance of them being reused. Koska innovation was to insert a mechanical valve in the plunger.
That sounds simple enough but what he had anticipated not was the difficulty he would have trying to change the business model of syringe manufacture. ifty billion traditional syringes are made around the world every year
of which about 20 billion are relevant in the developing world where the problem is most extant,
as a commodity product and are used by healthcare firms as a brand carrier, a market-getter, a loss leader.
Indeed, the price differential between conventional and auto-disable syringes has been a major barrier to getting the world to convert to safe syringes without the big stick of a global regulator.
Standard syringes cost between two and four cents each while mart syringestypically come in at between four and six cents.
Applied to 16 billion injections that are made annually in developing and transitional WHO member states,
who was involved heavily in drawing up its new syringe policy. he world needed guidance, he says. t just needed to unite under something sensible.
Koska is trusted by the US Senate to advise on syringe policy and had a personal audience in Davos this year with most of the leaders in the developing world to get them to commit to adopting his syringe practice.
Britain Queen Elizabeth has awarded also him the Order of The british Empire for service to global health. have been able to pull the manufacturers together,
The real fight is just beginning. THE WHO edict states that the organisation wants to convert every syringe in the world to auto-disable by 2020.
The battleground is in the curative market the use of syringes to treat existing health conditions,
which accounts for 95 per cent of the world syringes. The remaining 5 per cent the use of syringes to vaccinate against potential disease converted en masse to auto-disable syringes in 1999.
Koska is realistic expecting the quickest conversions to come in nations that are supported by international donors. t would be ridiculous to give a country $50m to help them with health
if they were reusing syringes because it would not be helping. he says. Conversion costs manufacturers nly a couple of million dollars, according to Koska an expense that is set to become the effective cost of staying in the syringe manufacturing business.
To prove the point, he invited 45 syringe manufacturers to Geneva to see the edict become official. ow they have got it from the horse mouth,
says Koska. hey will have to convert within the coming years. Koska is evangelising from a position of strength.
While a handful of other producers have invented their own auto-disable syringe, Star K1 syringes are manufactured under licence by 13 companies around the world, giving them a substantial lead. here no other product in this space that
I know of that is in more than one factory, says Koska. e have dominated completely in the preventative market because of our easy conversion process.
It not been cheap for Koska and his mates, however. Star, he says has swallowed investment of £4m-£5m from amily, friends and connections,
though royalties from K! and Star have brought in more than $20m over the last years. Indeed, getting to this point has taken so long that the entrepreneur now has only two years left on his 20-year patent for K1 and Star.
Star has responded by offering to supply the syringes free of charge to manufacturers who also licence its needle-stick device,
which ensures that syringe needles are covered always when not in use another requirement of the new WHO edict. urs is the cheapest one for covered needles,
says Koska. t in prototype form and wee pretty certain that nobody will be able to make it more cheaply. hat we hope,
with the offer of the free syringe royalty and our innovative needle stick, is that Britain,
Wee a little British company with British funding and we hope we can fly the flag. x
#Youtube Now Lets You View And Upload 360-Degree Videos Youtube has announced that it is now supporting 360-degree video uploads.
Some of the cameras that are compatible with Youtube 360-degree video uploads include Bublcam, 360cam by Giroptic, Allie by IC Real Tech, the SP360 by Kodak and the RICOH THETA.
This means that viewers can watch videos in any direction for a different perspective instead of just where the camera is facing.
The 360-degree cameras have a price range of about $300-$1, 000. With the 360-degree option, filmmakers and brands will be able to offer a unique experience by letting viewers watch scenes from multiple angles. ou share incredible videos with your fans every
said Youtube staff in a blog post. ou could let viewers see the stage and the crowd of your concert, the sky and the ground as you wingsuit glide,
When you upload a Youtube video with a 360-degree camera, the viewer is able to tap on the video
and drag the screen to look around at different angles. In the screenshot below, you will notice that there are navigational controls at the top left of the videos.
If you are using the Youtube app on an Android device then you can pan around the video simply by moving your smartphone and tablet around.
As of right now, the 360-degree Youtube videos are supported by just the Chrome browser on the desktop and the Youtube app on Android devices.
Youtube said that 360-degree videos will be supported on other platforms in the near future like the iphone and ipad.
Youtube also has plans to make the 360-degree videos accessible through virtual reality platforms, which is the best way to view immersive content.
The experience feels very similar to Google GOOGL-0. 94%Street view . If you are near the Youtube Space L a. studio on Bluff Creek Drive in Los angeles,
the Creator Tech team is letting people try out the 360-degree cameras and put together those types of videos with help from the staff between now through April.
When you are ready to upload 360-degree videos on Youtube, you can find technical information on Github with a Python script to insert the correct video metadata.
Youtube plans to make the process of uploading 360-degree videos automatic, but that script will be required in the meantime.
Keep in mind that the quality of the 360-degree videos are not as high as we see in the standard Youtube videos.
The 360-degree videos need to be at 24 25 or 30 frames per second.
And the 360-degree videos take up about four-to-five times the bandwidth of regular Youtube videos.
Youtube set up a playlist of some 360-degree videos so that you can see multiple examples.
Here are a few examples of the new 360-degree videos on Youtube (watch these using Google chrome on your desktop
or the Youtube app for Android to see the 360-degree controls) e
#In Historic Turn, CO2 EMISSIONS Flatline in 2014, Even as Global economy Grows A key stumbling block in the effort to combat global warming has been the intimate link between greenhouse gas emissions and economic growth.
When times are good and industries are thriving, global energy use traditionally increases and energy-related carbon dioxide emissions also go up.
Only when economies stumble and businesses shutter as during the most recent financial crisis does energy use typically decline,
in turn bringing down planet-warming emissions. But for the first time in nearly half a century, that synchrony between economic growth and energy-related emissions seems to have been broken
according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency, prompting its chief economist to wonder if an important new pivot point has been reached one that decouples economic vigor and carbon pollution.
The IEA pegged carbon dioxide emissions for 2014 at 32.3 billion metric tons essentially the same volume as 2013,
even as the global economy grew at a rate of about 3 percent. his gives me even more hope that humankind will be able to work together to combat climate change,
the most important threat facing us today, the IEA lead economist, Fatih Birol, said in a statement accompanying the findings.
Whether the disconnect is a mere fluke or a true harbinger of change is impossible to know.
The IEA suggested that decreasing use of coal in China and upticks in renewable electricity generation there using solar wind
and hydropower could have contributed to the reversal. The agency also cited the ongoing deployment of energy-efficiency and renewable power policies in Europe, the U s. and other developed economies as additional factors.
Speculation that fossil fuel use overall is fast approaching a peak has been percolating for some time. A recent study published in the journal Fuel
and conducted by a team of resource geologists and environmental engineers in Australia and China suggested that global fossil fuel use would likely top out within the next 10 years,
and decline precipitously thereafter. They attributed much of this projection to decreased reliance on coal in China,
which reported this week that overall greenhouse gas emissions for the country went down in 2014 the first such decline in more than a decade.
Mindful of such trends, the peak fossil-fuel study suggested that the most dire scenarios contemplated by the Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) in its most recent assessment of global warming science
and economics are unlikely to be realized, given changes in energy consumption patterns in various countries and the status of ultimately recoverable fossil fuel resources globally. n a business-as usual situation,
it is unlikely that fossil-fuel-depleted industrial economies in Europe and parts of Asia will strategically position themselves to be dependent on fossil fuel imports,
said Gary Ellem, a biophysicist and lecturer at the University of Newcastle and a co-author of the study. ather,
as part of business-as usual, they will seek to accelerate the development and installation alternative energy generation technologies to improve their energy and economic security.
There is clear evidence of this already occurring in Europe and China especially. According to the IEA, global greenhouse gas emissions have stalled
or fallen only three times in the 40 years since the agency began tracking them. All of these instances
which occurred in the early 1980,1992, and again in 2009, accompanied periods of global economic stagnation. he latest data on emissions are indeed encouraging,
but this is no time for complacency, IEA executive director, Maria van der Hoeven, said in announcing the emissions news,
who will meet in Paris later this year in an attempt to hammer out a global climate agreement p
#The Ultimate Dash Cam Hits the Market Lyfelens, developers of premium and innovative auto solutions to make cars safer and smarter,
has announced the production of a dash cam that connects the car and smartphone to provide users with insight of actions happening in and around the vehicle via realtime data,
live video feeds and push notifications. Lyfelens uses dual-facing, wide-angle cameras to capture crisp 1080p resolution footage that allows for maximum visibility inside
and outside a user vehicle to easily track and monitor a number of incidents. Lyfelens monitors trigger eventsxcessive speed, abrupt movements such as hard braking or collisions
location, movement and vandalismnd notifies users with alerts, live video and image playback that can be viewed with the Lyfelens app on a user smartphone.
Motion and sound detection sensors also monitor a user vehicle for unsafe or suspicious activity,
automatically capturing video and alerting the user. e designed Lyfelens with the goal of providing car owners with peace of mind, said cofounder
and CEO Allen Stone. yfelens keeps an eye on your car even when youe not there,
and is an invaluable resource for when the worst happens. Lyfelens is available for pre-order at a discounted price of $199 (plus $20 shipping.
When it ships in fall 2015, it will retail for $299. Outside of the vehicle, Lyfelens users can access real-time data, footage and push notifications by participation in a monthly subscription plan.
With this subscription, Lyfelens also broadcasts a 4G LTE Wifi hotspot to keep driver and passengersdevices connected on the go.
In addition to monitoring for incidents in and around the vehicle, Lyfelens features built-in GPS that provide access to the speed and location of the vehicle, mileage tracking and historical trip data,
while an integrated microphone enables clear audio recording and sound detection. The subscription is optional however it does enable full functionality/user experience of the product.
Without the subscription, the device still functions and pairs with the phone via Bluetooth when the user is in the vehicle,
but the user will not have instant push notifications of vehicle activity, the WIFI hotspot or automatic cloud storage of video/images (these would then only be stored on the device memory for the user to extract later).
The final cost of the subscription is still being determined. It will likely be a monthly cost of $19. 99-$29. 99 for a single unit (depending on data usage),
and subscribers with multiple cars/Lyfelens devices will be given discounted subscription rates for more than one device e
#Can't Stop The Tweet: How Social media Is Killing The Concert Experience I usually avoid Times square,
but I had bought my ticket to see American Authors five months earlier and so happily jostled the turtle-paced tourists.
As we entered the dark Best Buy Theater, my friend said, his is so nice!
I thought she was happy about getting a spot soclose to the stage, but instead she smiled at her phone, here Wi-fi here.
My friend wasn alone. Before the first jubilant percussion beats could settle, an ipad blocked my visibility like a solar eclipse.
Turning for a better view revealed a conglomeration of glowing devices not only grabbing pics and vids,
but tweeting, texting, snapchatting, posting, gramming, vining. I saw an audience controlling the experience instead of letting the experience entrance them.
Our smartphones, and the instant communication they lend tempt us to forget the real moment in which we are involved.
Musicians create something powerful to enjoy but most audience members insist on retaining the power of tangible devices instead of surrendering to the music intangible beauty.
but nothing can overpower the frenetic pattern of fingers on lucent screens. Is this an essential part of the concert experience or a divergence from it?
nd the ubiquity of smartphones has resulted in a huge percentage of the audience at any given show barely paying attention to the action onstage.
According to T-Mobile, 47%of audience members text during shows. There are obvious downsides to introducing a smartphone into the concert mise-en-scene.
It is distracting for fellow fans and, depending on the type of concert and proximity to the stage, the artists.
But no amount of audio or visual stimulation can negate the distraction of an LED screen shoved in your face by an overeager fan.
it is not difficult to find concert recordings on Youtube. Most artists produce live session music videos,
There are redemptive qualities to inviting phones into concert spaces. Having a little recorded segment despite grainy quality and muffled sound is treasured a
I felt this discombobulating headache at the American Authors concert. My friend was sending emails while
I played ninja to avoid flailing ipads the mini ones feel mega when they hit you in the nose and the band
I had waited for was not helping the situation. The Brooklyn-based alt-rockers promoted an Instagram
and Twitter campaign#bestdayofmylife, after their biggest hit. Besides adding another incentive for all phones on deck,
they ran the tagged photos on a huge onstage screen for parts of the performance.
the lead singer triumphantly produced his iphone to capture the audience sing-along. I smiled, but felt weird.
almost like slides of paintings on a screen we could all talk about, instead of the paintings themselves in their grandeur on museum walls.
It is not just rock concerts that add phone screens to the light show. The San francisco Symphony orchestra actually set aside weet seatsin
According to The LA Times, the fan was too busy filming to sing along into the microphone Beyoncé was holding before his face.
Frampton is no social media scrooge, he one of the few artists who personally engages with his online fan base.
Pink floyd cofounder Roger Waters told his Facebook followers that he ould never turn on a cell phone at any musical event.
The Huffington Post reports that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs prohibit the tendency to atch the show through a screen.
Prince posts his urple Ruleswhen touring that forbid phones in the concert hall. Outcries like these do not seem to be just about profit and image
but rather a call to be more human. These artists are not damning social media, but reminding fans that there is a spiritual and emotional connection between music and the listener,
and the concert experience is weakened without it. s with any human interaction, writes NPR music editor Stephen Thompson,
then smartphones detract from that, and if the purpose of social media and mobile messaging is communication,
a concert distracts from that. To everything there is a season. The nearly limitless accessibility provided by smartphones fuels the idea that sharing things is more important than doing things.
While sharing might be caring, we must remember that obsessive documenting changes the artistic structure of a concert atmosphere. he need to ocumentone life in every detail is a mania that can subtract from one enjoyment of the moment,
and, more emphatically, one memory of a special event, continues Ehnes. Concerts are collective experiences between audiences and artists,
but not necessarily including a pod of iphones. Placing a screen between eyes and stage alters the DNA of a piece.
Unless you can combine both experiences you must ask which expands your world more: eyes piercing a screen
or music piercing a soul. Twitter has a unique place in the social media sphere in that it was created purposefully for live events.
Twitter mission statement iso give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers.
According to Twitter website, more than 80%of active users tweet from their phones, making the flutter of the little blue bird at concerts less surprising.
The purpose of concert going is less definable than the purpose of tweeting. What seems to be unique about live music is presence,
Where is the line between engaging in Twitter purpose and engaging in the concert purpose?
Smartphones invading musical experiences are inevitable, but so are creative solutions. Some artists request that pictures
giving fans the peace of keeping phones on their person while removing the temptation to use them.
Bright screens attached to waving arms looked like some kind of extraterrestrial seabed or the luminescent Tree of Souls in Avatar.
I took a few videos, but did not feel the need to prove I was there.
but I did not feel present until my iphone was in my pocket. I told myself be here now.
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