Peter Katona 495 posts 0 comments

UC Irvine Medical Center said 4,859 patients are being notified of a data breach involving their sensitive medical information. The hospital said it discovered in March that an employee improperly accessed information including patient names, dates of birth, addresses, diagnoses, medical tests…

In South Korea, schools are starting to reopen and hundreds are coming out of quarantine as the Asian MERS outbreak appears to slow down. Middle East respiratory syndrome has infected 150 and killed 16 people in South Korea since mid-May. And as it has become clear in the past week, this health…

SEOUL, South Korea — Fears of the deadly virus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome enveloped South Korea on Wednesday as the authorities nearly doubled the number of quarantined people they say may have been exposed, temporarily closed more than 700 kindergartens and schools and refused to…

Representatives of more than 150 health care organizations, medical schools, pharmaceutical companies federal health agencies and food-production interests will meet at the White House today for a day-long “Forum on Antibiotic Stewardship,” the first of its kind. The Forum is a day-long meeting, to…

Take it from someone who has spent 41 years of his career as a mathematician, cryptographer and technical director at the U.S. National Security Agency: Healthcare is hugely vulnerable to cybercrime. And this is a reality health organizations need to quickly come to terms with so they can better…

The hacking of the health records of as many as 1 in 3 Americans has awoken the health care industry to an unpleasant reality: After spending billions to install computerized documents in hospitals and networks, it now must spend billions more to make them secure.... Read more

The National Security Agency shut off its massive collection of U.S. telephone records at 11:59 p.m. EDT Sunday, shortly after a rare weekend session in the Senate failed to craft a measure to extend the program. Senators moved forward with a House-passed bill that would reform the NSA's…

An investigation of a U.S. military facility's mistaken shipments of live anthrax bacteria has turned up another live sample, this one from a 2008 batch sent to Australia, a U.S. defense official said on Friday. The disclosure, if confirmed, suggests the possibility of a broader problem among…

It’s a brave new world when hackers step in to protect citizens because regulators are not getting the job done. Two years after President Obama signed an executive order setting voluntary guidelines that companies could follow to prevent cyberattacks — especially on critical infrastructure like…

Crews are working around the clock to clean up the site of an oil spill in Santa Barbara County that has sent tens of thousands of crude into the Pacific Ocean and left even more saturating the soil.... Read more

On Saturday, the World Health Organization declared Liberia to be Ebola-free, recognizing that there had been no new cases since the end of March. While its neighbors Sierra Leone and Guinea still wrestle with this virologic demon, this is a moment for reflection and cautious optimism in Liberia.…

A pipeline ruptured along the scenic California coastline on Tuesday, spilling some 21,000 gallons (79,000 liters) of oil into the ocean and on beaches before it could be secured, a U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman said. The pipeline, which runs parallel to Highway 101 near Santa Barbara, left a…

Under fire for selling a medical scope linked to superbug outbreaks, Olympus Corp. is pushing back against its critics and says the design of its product isn't necessarily the sole cause for infections. U.S. health officials have determined that recent bacterial outbreaks were tied to reusable…

Alarmed about the growing threat from Islamic State, the Obama administration has dramatically stepped up warnings of potential terrorist attacks on American soil after several years of relative calm. Behind the scenes, U.S. authorities have raised defenses at U.S. military bases, put local…