August 5, 2022
Security: Open Redirect flaw snags Amex, Snapchat user data
Threatpost
Attackers are exploiting a well-known open redirect flaw to phish people’s credentials and personally identifiable information (PII) using American Express and Snapchat domains, researchers have found.

Threat actors impersonated Microsoft and FedEx among other brands in two different campaigns, which researchers from INKY observed from mid-May through late July, they said in a blog post published online. Attackers took advantage of redirect vulnerabilities affecting American Express and Snapchat domains, the former of which eventually was patched while the latter still is not, researchers said. Read More
Healthcare IT: How the consumer app API rule of the Cures Act will push interoperability
Healthcare IT News
The 21st Century Cures Act was signed in 2016 and covers various components of healthcare, including modernizing the FDA approval process. Another part of the law deals with interoperability.

While HIPAA was designed to safeguard data, the portability component of the HIPAA mandate became a huge issue. There was no standardized format or means to make moving data from one place to another possible, and data holders like EHR vendors believed they owned patient data. With the 21st Century Cures Act, policymakers now have said no; health data belongs to individuals, and there needs to be an easy means for them to access it. Read More
Homeland Security: IPAWS advisory: Emergency Alert System (EAS) vulnerability
Homeland Security Today
FEMA recently became aware of certain vulnerabilities in EAS encoder/decoder devices that, if not updated to most recent software versions, could allow an actor to issue EAS alerts over the host infrastructure (TV, radio, cable network).

This exploit was successfully demonstrated by Ken Pyle, a security researcher at CYBIR.com, and may be presented as a proof of concept at the upcoming DEFCON 2022 conference in Las Vegas, August 11-14. Read More
Transportation: NHTSA probes tesla crashes that killed two motorcyclists
Transport Topics
DETROIT — Two crashes involving Teslas apparently running on Autopilot are drawing scrutiny from federal regulators and point to a potential new hazard on U.S. freeways: The partially automated vehicles may not stop for motorcycles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sent investigation teams to two crashes last month in which Teslas collided with motorcycles on freeways in the darkness. Both were fatal.

The agency suspects that Tesla’s partially automated driver-assist system was in use in each. Read More
Human Resources: Who gets to work in the digital economy?
Harvard Business Review
The Covid-19 pandemic shifted the public conversation about remote work. This shift raises the possibility that remote may become commonplace or even the the norm for many digital economy jobs, which are loosely defined as jobs using computers to produce digital goods and services. The focus on daily work arrangements may, however, miss an even larger opportunity that the pandemic has unearthed: the possibility of a substantially increased labor pool for digital economy work.

Employees relocating to so-called “rising star” cities like Salt Lake City or Miami is one thing, but people all around the U.S. suddenly realizing that they too can participate in digital economy work is quite another. The societal impact may be profound as the dissolution of geographic barriers unlocks digital economy work opportunities for more people from more places. Read More
Business & Technology: What is data visualization?
CIO
Data visualization is the presentation of data in a graphical format such as a plot, graph, or map to make it easier for decision makers to see and understand trends, outliers, and patterns in data.

Maps and charts were among the earliest forms of data visualization. One of the most well-known early examples of data visualization was a flow map created by French civil engineer Charles Joseph Minard in 1869 to help understand what Napoleon’s troops suffered in the disastrous Russian campaign of 1812. The map used two dimensions to depict the number of troops, distance, temperature, latitude and longitude, direction of travel, and location relative to specific dates. Today, data visualization encompasses all manners of presenting data visually, from dashboards to reports, statistical graphs, heat maps, plots, infographics, and more. Read More