The Risk Factor

A small story was published over at Government Executive magazine on the possibility that the wireless network used to support the Secure Border Initiative Network (SBINet) might be susceptible to hacking, and that the prime contractor Boeing is looking for ways to increase its security.

I wish Boeing luck. As my friend Peter Neumann wrote a long time ago, it is awfully hard to build security into a system after the fact.

In June, I wrote about the AMA's approval of a policy that at the time was seen as likely increasing the use of implanted chips using RFID technology to record and transmit patient medical history.

The Associated Press has recently released an investigative news story questioning the safety of these chips. Some medical studies indicated that these chip implants appeared to induce malignant tumors in some lab mice and rats. While pointing out that what happened in the lab mice and rats doesn't necessarily mean the same thing will happen in humans, a more compelling question raised in the article was why these studies did not seem to be reviewed by the FDA when it approved the use of chip implants.

As acknowledged by the FDA, there are some risks associated with chip implants, "The potential risks to health associated with the device are adverse tissue reaction, migration of implanted transponder, compromised information security, failure of implanted transponder, failure of inserter, failure of electronic scanner, electromagnetic interference, electrical hazards, magnetic resonance imaging incompatibility, and needle stick."

It is way too early to see if this possible new health risk will slow down further the use of chip implants (VeriChip, the company that has been approved by the FDA to sell chip implants did see its stock drop by more than 10% on the publication of the AP story), but in a related story, the California Senate passed legislation that blocks the mandatory use of ID chip implants in employees. The bill had already been passed by the State Assembly and now awaits action by Gov. Schwarzenegger.

The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Alberta and Calgary, Canada, released a report today on the TJX data breach. Not surprising, the report found that TJX skimped on privacy safeguards. It appears that initial access into TJX computer systems was via the wireless local area networks at two of its US stores.