A hacker who claims to have stolen the health records of over 8.3 million Virginia residents is demanding $10 million for their return.The case is now being investigated by federal and state authorities.
The secure site run by the Virginia Department of Health Professions for the prescription monitoring program was hacked on last Thursday. The site is shut down since then as the hacker posted a message demanding ransom.The hacker claimed to have deleted the original database and created an encrypted backup copy .The state authorities have started an investigation and it is unclear whether the database is secure or not.
The Prescription Monitoring Program is administered by the Virginia Department of Health Professionals.It collects information about every prescription for certain federally controlled drugs dispensed by Virginia pharmacies. Virginia had established the prescription monitoring database in 2003 to track the sales of controlled substances.
The ransom demands were posted by the hacker in the open Wikileaks.org. It read
I have your s***! In *my* possession, right now, are 8,257,378 patient records and a total of 35,548,087 prescriptions. Also, I made an encrypted backup and deleted the original. Unfortunately for Virginia, their backups seem to have gone missing, too. Uhoh :(For $10 million, I will gladly send along the password.You have 7 days to decide. If by the end of 7 days, you decide not to pony up, I’ll go ahead and put this baby out on the market and accept the highest bid.
Sandra Whitley Ryals, director of the Department of Health Profession said the database was backed up properly and the data was safe.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Man freezes off his 'hated' right leg
An Australian man who had hated his right leg plunged it in a bucket of dry ice for six hours so doctors had to amputate his leg.
David Openshaw, 29, had "hated" his right leg for the past 25 years. According to him, he suffered from a rare neurological condition called body integrity identity disorder (BIID), which sufferers claim is a medical condition characterized by an overwhelming desire to lose a limb or become a paraplegic.
Openshaw got his leg amputated last year and gets about on crutches now. He said that he had no regrets about being on crutches.
I had all these years of constantly having mind games with myself and then this one day, out of the blue, it's no longer there.It took quite a little bit to get used to.
It is believed that there are many people around who have BIID, although many psychologists refuse to recognize it as a genuine identity trait..Many of the sufferers have amputated their healthy organs on their own. In 2000, Scottish surgeon Robert Smith had performed several amputations for many BIID sufferers, who according to him would have taken their own lives unless their demand for amputation was not met. Later he was ordered to stop.
David Openshaw, 29, had "hated" his right leg for the past 25 years. According to him, he suffered from a rare neurological condition called body integrity identity disorder (BIID), which sufferers claim is a medical condition characterized by an overwhelming desire to lose a limb or become a paraplegic.
Openshaw got his leg amputated last year and gets about on crutches now. He said that he had no regrets about being on crutches.
I had all these years of constantly having mind games with myself and then this one day, out of the blue, it's no longer there.It took quite a little bit to get used to.
It is believed that there are many people around who have BIID, although many psychologists refuse to recognize it as a genuine identity trait..Many of the sufferers have amputated their healthy organs on their own. In 2000, Scottish surgeon Robert Smith had performed several amputations for many BIID sufferers, who according to him would have taken their own lives unless their demand for amputation was not met. Later he was ordered to stop.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Hong Kong reports first confirmed flu case, quarantines hotel
The first confirmed case of swine flu in Asia was reported on Friday after a Mexican man who had travelled to Hong Kong via Shanghai tested positive for the virus.
Authorities in Hong Kong ordered a week long quarantine of a Hotel after lab tests confirmed that a 25-year-old visitor from Mexico who arrived from Shanghai had the disease. The traveler and his two companions are put under observation, although his companions didn't show any symptoms of the deadly disease.The man had arrived at the Hotel on Thursday afternoon.
Donald Tsang,the chief executive of Hong Kong said:
I ask that the Hong Kong people not be afraid — the government has the fortitude to effectively contain the virus before it spreads.
Hong Kong case is the first confirmed case of swine flu in Asia,although South Korea had reported three probable cases of the disease.
Hong Kong was severely hit by the SARS virus in 2003, with 300 deaths reported in the city alone. SARS had killed more than 900 all over the world.So Hong Kong is taking no chances with the new virus.It has stockpiled Tamiflu vaccines equal to three times its population, the highest in the world.
Meanwhile, China decided to suspend flights from Mexico to Shanghai after the confirmation of swine flu in Hong Kong .It will send a charter plane to Mexico to collect Chinese passengers who had planned to fly to Shanghai.
Authorities in Hong Kong ordered a week long quarantine of a Hotel after lab tests confirmed that a 25-year-old visitor from Mexico who arrived from Shanghai had the disease. The traveler and his two companions are put under observation, although his companions didn't show any symptoms of the deadly disease.The man had arrived at the Hotel on Thursday afternoon.
Donald Tsang,the chief executive of Hong Kong said:
I ask that the Hong Kong people not be afraid — the government has the fortitude to effectively contain the virus before it spreads.
Hong Kong case is the first confirmed case of swine flu in Asia,although South Korea had reported three probable cases of the disease.
Hong Kong was severely hit by the SARS virus in 2003, with 300 deaths reported in the city alone. SARS had killed more than 900 all over the world.So Hong Kong is taking no chances with the new virus.It has stockpiled Tamiflu vaccines equal to three times its population, the highest in the world.
Meanwhile, China decided to suspend flights from Mexico to Shanghai after the confirmation of swine flu in Hong Kong .It will send a charter plane to Mexico to collect Chinese passengers who had planned to fly to Shanghai.
NASA plans to eliminate 900 manufacturing jobs
NASA has announced plans to cut 900 manufacturing jobs as it prepares to retire its space shuttle fleet next year.The layoffs will be between now and the end of September.
The job losses come as NASA plans to retire its space shuttle fleet in September 2010.The three shuttles have just nine more flights to go between them before their retirement. According to NASA officials, The first 160 layoff notices will go out on Friday. Majority of the job cuts will be among the contractors producing the space shuttle fuel tanks outside New Orleans and the shuttle solid rocket boosters in Utah.
Announcing the plans on Thursday, shuttle Program Manager John Shannon said:
We have delivered the last pieces of hardware that those team members produce and we don't keep them on the (payroll). And that is in order to get our budget down to the marks and the assumptions we made early on. So we will start tomorrow and continue with the workforce reduction we had outlined.
NASA's workforce has come down significantly from a high of 24,000 in the nineties to about 13,800 now. More job losses are expected as NASA plans to replace the shuttles with Apollo-style capsules.
Some manufacturing jobs are expected to be created to build the shuttle's replacement, new capsule spaceships, named Orion.Money for developing Orion and its launcher, called Ares, is coming from funds that previously went toward shuttle operations and station construction. Orion is expected to make its debut by 2015.
The job losses come as NASA plans to retire its space shuttle fleet in September 2010.The three shuttles have just nine more flights to go between them before their retirement. According to NASA officials, The first 160 layoff notices will go out on Friday. Majority of the job cuts will be among the contractors producing the space shuttle fuel tanks outside New Orleans and the shuttle solid rocket boosters in Utah.
Announcing the plans on Thursday, shuttle Program Manager John Shannon said:
We have delivered the last pieces of hardware that those team members produce and we don't keep them on the (payroll). And that is in order to get our budget down to the marks and the assumptions we made early on. So we will start tomorrow and continue with the workforce reduction we had outlined.
NASA's workforce has come down significantly from a high of 24,000 in the nineties to about 13,800 now. More job losses are expected as NASA plans to replace the shuttles with Apollo-style capsules.
Some manufacturing jobs are expected to be created to build the shuttle's replacement, new capsule spaceships, named Orion.Money for developing Orion and its launcher, called Ares, is coming from funds that previously went toward shuttle operations and station construction. Orion is expected to make its debut by 2015.
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