RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest Saturday 4 May 2019 Volume 31 : Issue 22

ACM FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS (comp.risks) Peter G. Neumann, moderator, chmn ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy

***** See last item for further information, disclaimers, caveats, etc. ***** This issue is archived at <http://www.risks.org> as
<http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/31.22>
The current issue can also be found at
<http://www.csl.sri.com/users/risko/risks.txt>

Contents:
World's Top Internet User Taps Fake News Busters for Elections
(Bloomberg)
Wells Fargo and Post Office Horizon (Lindsay Marshall)
Database Exposes Medical Info, PII Data of 137k People in U.S.
(Bleeping Computer)
Ladders Data Leak: Over 13M User Records Exposed Due To Cloud
Misconfiguration (IBTimes)
How angry pilots got the Navy to stop dismissing UFO sightings; UFO
information not expected to go to general public, Navy says (Wash Post)
This $1,650 pill will tell your doctors whether you've taken it.
Is it the future of medicine? (WashPost)
"Telecom giants battle bill which bans Internet service throttling for
firefighters in emergencies" (ZDNet)
UK Police Have a Message for Crime Victims- Hand Over Your Private Data
(NYTimes)
NSA Reports 75% Increase in Unmasking U.S. Identities... (WSJ)
New Documents Reveal DHS Asserting Broad, Unconstitutional Authority to
Search Travelers' Phones and Laptops (EFF)
Zero-day attackers deliver a double dose of ransomware -- no clicking
required? (Ars Technica)
Electronic Health Records and Doctor Burnout (Scientific American)
Hertz, Accenture, and the blame game (Browser London)
Monster screwup on dividends (Korea Herald)
NSA-inspired vulnerability found in Huawei laptops (Bruce Schneier)
Vodafone found hidden backdoors in Huawei equipment (Bloomberg)
Vodafone denies Huawei Italy security risk (BBC)
Re: Huawei's code is a steaming pile... (Keith Thompson, Dmitri Maziuk,
phil colbourn)
Re: Should AI be used to catch shoplifters? (Richard Stein)
Re: A video showed a parked Tesla Model S exploding in Shanghai
(Roger Bell-West)
Re: A 'Blockchain Bandit' Is Guessing Private Keys and Scoring Millions
(Dan Jacobson)
Re: An Interesting Juxtaposition (Gene Wirchenko)
Re: Gregory Travis' article on the 737 MAX (Gregory Travis)
Digital health ... (Rob Slade)
Re: Is curing patients, a sustainable business model? (Toby Douglass)
"Bernie Sanders wants you to expose your friends, Facebook-style" (ZDNet) Abridged info on RISKS (comp.risks)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sat, 4 May 2019 10:00:56 -1000
From: the keyboard of geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: World's Top Internet User Taps Fake News Busters for Elections
(Bloomberg)

** Philippines' elections body cracks down on misleading posts*
** Media, academe team up to fact check election-related news*
EXCERPT:

In the Philippines -- where 76 million Internet users stay online the
longest in the world -- just a handful of people spend a few hours each day
to fight fake news about the upcoming midterm elections.

The Commission on Elections has formed a team of 10 government workers to
spot and report misleading online posts to Facebook Inc., with whom the
poll body has an agreement to quickly take down false information. Weeks
before the May 13 elections, the group has already identified hundreds of
fake news posts -- mostly those claiming ballots have been tampered with,
or that the poll results are predetermined.

``What we're trying to do is to institutionalize this reporting process in a way that Facebook will not have any other recourse but to act on it,''
Election Commission spokesman James Jimenez said in an interview. ``Fake
news could affect how people see the credibility of the elections and the mandate of the winner.''

Read more: What Happens When the Government Uses Facebook as a Weapon? https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-12-07/how-rodrigo-duterte-turned-facebook-into-a-weapon-with-a-little-help-from-facebook

With more voters using social media now, the election body expects fake news
to spread faster this time compared to the 2016 vote, when President Rodrigo Duterte won. Still, Jimenez said the team formed to fight fake news is not enough to adequately combat disinformation...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-04/world-s-top-internet-user-taps-fake-news-busters-for-elections

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 3 May 2019 14:13:55 +0000
From: Lindsay Marshall <Lindsay.Marshall@newcastle.ac.uk>
Subject: Wells Fargo and Post Office Horizon

I was recently asked by the BBC to comment on two `computer glitches', and, naturally, I turned to RISKS to get more information. I found to my surprise that neither seemed to have been mentioned. Here are links for the cases:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizon_(IT_system)

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/12/business/wells-fargo-foreclosure-nightmare/index.html

Note that neither of these seem to be even remotely ´glitches'.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 3 May 2019 21:25:56 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Database Exposes Medical Info, PII Data of 137k People in U.S.
(Bleeping Computer)

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/database-exposes-medical-info-pii-data-of-137k-people-in-us/

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 3 May 2019 21:27:20 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Ladders Data Leak: Over 13M User Records Exposed Due To Cloud
Misconfiguration (IBTimes)

https://www.ibtimes.com/ladders-data-leak-over-13m-user-records-exposed-due-cloud-misconfiguration-2789394

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 2 May 2019 15:18:03 -1000
From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: How angry pilots got the Navy to stop dismissing UFO sightings;
UFO information not expected to go to general public, Navy says (Wash Post)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2019/04/24/how-angry-pilots-got-navy-stop-dismissing-ufo-sightings/
[AND] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/navy-no-release-of-ufo-information-to-the-general-public-expected/2019/05/01/25ef6426-6b82-11e9-9d56-1c0cf2c7ac04_story.html

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/UFO-information-not-expected-to-go-to-general-13810876.php

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 1 May 2019 14:26:17 -1000
From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: This $1,650 pill will tell your doctors whether you've taken it.
Is it the future of medicine? (WashPost)

When the Food and Drug Administration approved in late 2017 a schizophrenia pill that sends a signal to a patient's doctor when ingested, it was
seen not only as a major step forward for the disease but as a new frontier
of Internet-connected medicine.

Patients who have schizophrenia often stop taking their medicine, triggering psychotic episodes that can have severe consequences. So the pill, a 16-year-old medication combined with a tiny microchip, would help doctors intervene before a patient went dangerously off course.

Seventeen months later, few patients use the medication, known as Abilify MyCite. Doctors and insurance companies say it is a case in which real-world limitations, as well as costs, outweigh the innovations that the medical industry can produce.

In the case of schizophrenia patients, some doctors warn that Abilify
MyCite could exacerbate the very delusions that the medication is designed
to prevent.

``Patients who have a lot of paranoia might be uncomfortable with the idea
of a medicine that is transmitting signals. The patient may be afraid to
take it,'' said Richmond psychiatrist James Levenson. ``The science of this one is kind of ahead of the data.''

The debate over Abilify MyCite underscores a dilemma American health care
will increasingly face as the medical industry and Silicon Valley try to promote innovation. For decades, medicine has been effectively delivered through a few simple mechanisms: a pill, a cream, a nose spray, a needle.

But in the hopes of improving outcomes further, the industry is turning to
an array of new technologies against one of the biggest, and most human, challenges in treating disease: getting people to take their medicine in a consistent way.

Companies are producing apps for substance abuse treatment, diabetes management, and heart and blood pressure monitoring at a rapid clip.
Studies are underway for more digital pills to treat cancer, cardiovascular conditions and infectious disease.

And while many of these may pass regulatory hurdles that show they're safe
-- especially at a time when the Trump administration has been leaning into medical innovation and pushing back against excessive regulation -- doctors
and insurers are not convinced that the technologies will so easily make
the difference that the pharmaceutical industry is betting billions on.

``I think that these technologies have a lot of potential benefits, but it's going to be a question of evidence -- that they can demonstrate value to patients and payers,'' said Scott Gottlieb, who stepped down this month as
FDA commissioner, a job in which he made approval of leading technology a hallmark.

The first digital therapy to win FDA market clearance, Abilify MyCite's sensor-embedded pill remains off the market because of physician and
insurance industry reservations.

Now Maryland-based Otsuka Pharmaceutical, which makes the medication, may be able to jump-start its acceptance by offering it to mentally ill people who qualify for low-income government health insurance. Otsuka won approval from Virginia Medicaid authorities last month to begin coverage. The company also
is starting a pilot program in Florida and is considering another in
Oklahoma.

Otsuka considers itself a pioneer. Abilify is an older brand-name drug
marketed by the company to treat schizophrenia and other serious mental illnesses. Abilify MyCite adds the electronic tracking component and, at
$1,650 a month, costs almost 30 times as much as a 30-day supply of generic Abilify at a Costco pharmacy.

Otsuka developed the treatment with Proteus Digital Health, a Silicon
Valley company that markets the digital component. Proteus is pioneering
its use in other therapies including cancer patients taking chemotherapy
drugs.

After the daily antipsychotic pill is swallowed, a digital sensor the size
of a grain of sand (and made of copper, magnesium and silicon, which Proteus says are all found in food) transmits a signal when it comes into contact
with stomach acid. The signal is captured by a patch worn on the patient's torso. The patch sends a signal to an app on the patient's smartphone. The
app uploads data to a secure website for viewing by doctors. Otsuka has won special federal approval to provide smartphones ``with highly limited functionality'' to people who can't afford them.

The goal is to solve a vexing problem: Schizophrenia patients often stop
taking their medicine, triggering psychotic episodes that can have severe consequences. Abilify MyCite is supposed to help doctors keep track of
which patients are staying on their medication. The app also allows
patients to enter information about their mood.

The approval led to debate among psychiatrists about the ethics of invasive monitoring for patients whose mental competency at times may be borderline. They raised questions about patients' autonomy, data privacy and ability to navigate the technical challenges of the system.

But proponents say the medical need is so great that Abilify MyCite
deserves a close look.

Virginia state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds (D-Bath), who chairs a special mental health committee in the legislature, said he had not heard of the therapy
until contacted by The Washington Post. But he said in an interview that he
was intrigued by a technology that could help people like his mentally ill
son, Austin `Gus' Deeds, 24, who slashed Deeds on the face in 2013 before taking his own life. Deeds said his son had stopped taking medication nearly
a year beforehand. ``There is a need for people who are caregivers to make sure the person's taking the medicine, The other side of it is the civil liberty issue for the person who is sick.''

Gus Deeds thought his medications ``made him less of who he was. It dumbed
down his personality,'' Deeds said. But, he added, ``a person does not have
the right to destroy their life, or the life of others.''

He said he did not have an opinion on whether Virginia Medicaid should add Abilify MyCite to its list of approved prescription drugs.

Otsuka emphasizes that no patient will be asked to use Abilify MyCite
without showing a clear desire to do so. Schizophrenia patients who have paranoid feelings about ingesting a digital pill are unlikely candidates for the drug, the company said.

``It's unlike a pharmaceutical launch where you proactively blitz all the states. We're not doing that,'' said John Bardi, Otsuka's vice president
for public affairs and digital business development. ``It's really about patients who want to improve their treatment goals. If they have any
concerns, it's probably not the right solution for them.'' ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/this-1650-pill-will-tell-your-doctors-whether-youve-taken-it-is-it-the-future-of-medicine/2019/04/28/393281b2-4c10-11e9-b79a-961983b7e0cd_story.html

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 01 May 2019 10:15:03 -0700
From: Gene Wirchenko <gene@shaw.ca>
Subject: "Telecom giants battle bill which bans Internet service throttling
for firefighters in emergencies" (ZDnet)

[What a PR blunder by the telecom industry!]

Charlie Osborne for Between the Lines | 26 Apr 2019
The industry faced backlash following last year's wildfires and
firefighter service throttling. https://www.zdnet.com/article/telecom-firms-battle-to-overturn-unthrottled-service-demand-for-firefighters-in-emergencies/

selected text:

Internet service providers (ISPs) and telecom firms are fighting a bill
which would force them to provide unfettered broadband services and prevent them from throttling data use in emergency situations.

The proposed legislation is due to voted upon by California's Communications and Conveyance Committee next week.

As reported by StateScoop, the bill -- introduced in February -- aims to prevent a repeat of what happened in summer 2018 during the Mendocino
Complex Fire, one of the largest wildfires recorded in California's history.

As firefighters from the Santa Clara County Central Fire Protection District fought to contain the fires, they found their Internet service drastically reduced, having been throttled in what Verizon Wireless later called a "customer support mistake."

Such connectivity can be crucial in emergency situations to coordinate
rescue and firefighting efforts. The fire department had an "unlimited" plan with Verizon, but Ars Technica reports this service was throttled to speeds
of either 200kbps or 600kbps once 25GB -- the monthly cap -- was surpassed.

Verizon said at the time that the company has an internal policy to remove "data speed restrictions when contacted in emergency situations," but this
did not happen during the wildfires.

To lift the throttling, instead, Verizon told the department to upgrade to a more expensive plan.

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 1 May 2019 14:31:01 -1000
From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: UK Police Have a Message for Crime Victims- Hand Over Your
Private Data (NYTimes)

The British police delivered a striking warning to crime victims on Monday:
If you want the case to be pursued, be prepared to turn over personal data
from your mobile phone, laptop, tablet or smart watches.

``Police have a duty to pursue all reasonable lines of enquiry,'' Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for criminal justice, said in a statement. ``Those now frequently extend into
the devices of victims and witnesses as well as suspects -- particularly in cases where suspects and victims know each other.''

But the new policy raised concerns about potential invasions of privacy and
the risk of discouraging people from reporting crimes, particularly
offenses like sexual assault that are already underreported because victims fear being treated like the guilty ones.

In many cases, the police already search digital trails, which can produce evidence that either backs up an accusation or casts doubt on it. Privacy advocates say that police departments often improperly download cellphone
data from people they detain, without their knowledge or consent.

Under the new approach, victims and witnesses will routinely be asked to
sign a form saying that they consent to the police extracting data from
their electronic devices, which can mean text messages, emails, contacts, social media records, Internet browsing history and more. Otherwise, the
case might not proceed...

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/world/europe/rape-victim-data-privacy-uk.html

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 1 May 2019 14:29:09 -1000
From: the keyboard of geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: NSA Reports 75% Increase in Unmasking U.S. Identities... (WSJ)

*The National Security Agency, responsible for electronic eavesdropping, disclosed the identities of people or entities that are normally redacted
in intelligence reports*
EXCERPT:

The National Security Agency revealed to federal agencies the identities of almost 17,000 U.S. residents or corporations whose information was
collected under a foreign surveillance law in 2018, registering about a 75% increase in unmaskings over the previous year, according to an annual transparency report released Tuesday.

The NSA, responsible for electronic eavesdropping, disclosed the identities
of people or entities that are normally redacted in intelligence reports --
in response to specific requests from other government agencies to reveal
the identities, a process known as unmasking.

In 2018, NSA said it unmasked 16,721 U.S. identities caught up in
intelligence intercepts produced by a foreign intelligence law, the report said. It unmasked 9,529 in 2017 and 9,217 in a 12-month period across 2015
and 2016.

The surge in the number of unmaskings last year was fueled in part by an
effort to determine the identities of victims of cyberattacks from foreign intelligence agencies, according to Alex Joel, head of civil liberties and transparency at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence which released Tuesday's report.

Mr. Joel, in a call with reporters, said there were a number of varied
factors -- including world events and evolving threats--that could result in statistical fluctuations in a given year for a certain type of surveillance.

Unmasking is a term used when the identity of a U.S. citizen, lawful
resident, or corporate entity is revealed in classified intelligence
reports. Unmasking is designed to be only used for national-security
reasons, such as helping officials assess intelligence by providing the identity of someone two foreign spies may be discussing on a call. But the process is governed by strict rules across the U.S. intelligence apparatus
that make it illegal to use unmaskings for political purposes or to leak classified information...

[...] https://www.wsj.com/articles/nsa-reports-75-increase-in-unmasking-u-s-identities-under-foreign-surveillance-law-in-2018-11556641509

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-unmasked-more-us-identities-likely-to-warn-victims-of-foreign-spying-new-report-suggests/2019/04/30/35739e80-6b50-11e9-9d56-1c0cf2c7ac04 story.html

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 1 May 2019 14:32:01 -1000
From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: New Documents Reveal DHS Asserting Broad, Unconstitutional
Authority to Search Travelers' Phones and Laptops (EFF)

*EFF, ACLU Move for Summary Judgment to Block Warrantless Searches of Electronic Devices at Airports, U.S. Ports of Entry*

BOSTON--The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the ACLU today asked a federal court to rule without trial that the Department of Homeland Security violates the First and Fourth Amendments by searching travelers' smartphones and laptops at airports and other U.S. ports of entry without a warrant.

The request for summary judgment https://www.eff.org/document/alasaad-motion-summary-judgment comes
after the groups obtained documents and deposition testimony revealing that U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorize border officials to search travelers' phones and
laptops for general law enforcement purposes, and consider requests from
other government agencies when deciding whether to conduct such warrantless searches.

EFF Senior Staff Attorney Adam Schwartz: ``The evidence we have presented
the court shows that the scope of ICE and CBP border searches is unconstitutionally broad. ICE and CBP policies and practices allow
unfettered, warrantless searches of travelers' digital devices, and empower officers to dodge the Fourth Amendment when rifling through highly personal information contained on laptops and phones.''

The previously undisclosed government information was obtained as part of a lawsuit, Alasaad v. McAleenan
https://www.eff.org/cases/alasaad-v-duke
EFF, ACLU, and ACLU of Massachusetts filed in September 2017 on behalf of
11 travelers--10 U.S. citizens and one lawful permanent resident=94whose smartphones and laptops were searched without warrants at U.S. ports of
entry.

Esha Bhandari, staff attorney with the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and
Technology Project: ``This new evidence reveals that government agencies are using the pretext of the border to make an end run around the First and
Fourth Amendments, The border is not a lawless place, ICE and CBP are not exempt from the Constitution, and the information on our electronic devices
is not devoid of Fourth Amendment protections. We're asking the court to
stop these unlawful searches and require the government to get a warrant.''

The government documents and testimony, portions of which were publicly
filed in court today, reveal CBP and ICE are asserting broad and unconstitutional authority to search and seize travelers' devices. The evidence includes ICE and CBP policies and practices that authorize border officers to conduct warrantless and suspicionless device searches for
purposes beyond the enforcement of immigration and customs laws. Officials
can search devices for general law enforcement purposes, such as enforcing bankruptcy, environmental, and consumer protection laws, and for
intelligence gathering or to advance pre-existing investigations. Officers
also consider requests from other government agencies to search devices. In addition, the agencies assert the authority to search electronic devices
when the subject of interest is someone other than the traveler -- such as
when the traveler is a journalist or scholar with foreign sources who are of interest to the U.S. government, or even when the traveler is the business partner of someone under investigation. Both agencies further allow officers
to retain information from travelers' electronic devices and share it with other government entities, including state, local, and foreign law
enforcement agencies.

The plaintiffs are asking the court to rule that the government must have a warrant based on probable cause before conducting searches of electronic devices, which contain highly detailed personal information about people's lives. The plaintiffs, which include a limousine driver, a military veteran, journalists, students, an artist, a NASA engineer, and a business owner, are also requesting the court to hold that the government must have probable
cause to confiscate a traveler's device.

The district court previously rejected the government's motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/05/victory-alasaad-our-digital-privacy-border

The number of electronic device searches at the border has increased dramatically in the last few years. Last year, CBP conducted more than
33,000 border device searches, almost four times the number from just three years prior. CBP and ICE policies allow border officers to manually search anyone's smartphone with no suspicion at all, and to conduct a forensic
search with reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing. CBP also allows
suspicionless device searches for a `national security concern'.
[PGN-pruned for RISKS ...]

<https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/cbp-releases-statistics-electronic-device-searches-0>

For more information about this case: https://www.eff.org/cases/alasaad-v-duke https://www.eff.org/press/releases/new-documents-reveal-dhs-asserting-broad-unconstitutional-authority-search-travelers

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 2 May 2019 15:16:07 -1000
From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: Zero-day attackers deliver a double dose of ransomware -- no
clicking required? (Ars Technica)

*High-severity hole in Oracle WebLogic under active exploit for 9 days.
Patch now.*

EXCERPT:

Attackers have been actively exploiting a critical zero-day vulnerability
in the widely used Oracle WebLogic server to install ransomware, with no clicking or other interaction necessary on the part of end users,
researchers from Cisco Talos said on Tuesday.

The vulnerability and working exploit code first became public two weeks
ago on the Chinese National Vulnerability Database, according to
researchers from the security educational group SANS ISC, who warned that
the vulnerability was under active attack. The vulnerability is easy to
exploit and gives attackers the ability to execute code of their choice on cloud servers. Because of their power, bandwidth, and use in high-security cloud environments, these servers are considered high-value targets. The disclosure prompted Oracle to release an emergency patch on Friday.

On Tuesday, researchers with Cisco Talos said CVE-2019-2725, as the vulnerability has been indexed, has been under active exploit since at least April 21. Starting last Thursday -- a day before Oracle patched the zero-day vulnerability, attackers started using the exploits in a campaign to install `Sodinokibi', a new piece of ransomware. In addition to encrypting valuable data on infected computers, the malicious program attempts to destroy shadow copy backups to prevent targets from simply restoring the lost data. Oddly enough, about eight hours after infection, the attackers exploited the same vulnerability to install a different piece of ransomware known as GandCrab.

No interaction required...

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/04/zeroday-attackers-deliver-a-double-dose-of-ransomware-no-clicking-required/

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 3 May 2019 21:23:06 +0800
From: Richard Stein <rmstein@ieee.org>
Subject: Electronic Health Records and Doctor Burnout (Scientific American)

[Beware of Dr. Burnout. He is notoriously unready. PGN]

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/electronic-health-records-and-doctor-burnout/

The essay cites numerous factors contributing to physician burnout, the the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) identifies: "family responsibilities, time pressure, chaotic environment, low control of pace,
and the electronic health record."

A few cherry-picked items from the essay follow. Attributed to the EHR, the author writes:

"In 2013 the Journal of Emergency Medicine reported that, over the course of
a 10-hour shift, resident physicians in a busy emergency room spent 28
percent of their work time with patients and 43 percent on data entry,
during which they made 4,000 keystrokes."

These input keystrokes trace to patient outcome/care/administration metrics: "159 publicly available measures of outpatient care and that physicians
spent 2.6 hours and staff 12.5 hours per week attending to them. Insurers
and government massaged clinical and billing data with over 500 insurer and 1,700 government standards."

"No matter how good your intentions, if you just keep piling onto a harried clinician's workday more stuff to do and more data to collect, you run the
risk of actually making care worse, angering patients and alienating
providers. Time pressure, chaotic environment, and low control of pace are
all exacerbated by overzealous oversight via the EHR."

The author suggests one technological fix to lighten clinicians' manual data entry load: "To date, no maker of an electronic health record has figured
out how to do adequate justice to [patient] stories without sacrificing
data. Automated transcription of dictated notes is a start. Artificial intelligence that can parse sentences and paragraphs into data should help a lot."

Certain speech-to-text (STT) platforms advertise transcription success rates
at 99% for certain vocabularies and contexts, with medical specialties of particular focus.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_recognition%23Accuracy

"Error rates increase as the vocabulary size grows: e.g. the 10 digits
'zero' to 'nine' can be recognized essentially perfectly, but vocabulary
sizes of 200, 5000 or 100000 may have error rates of 3%, 7% or 45% respectively."

Single word error rate and command success rate are two key metrics which
are influenced by numerous usage/capability attributes:

"Vocabulary size and confusability, speaker dependence versus independence, isolated, discontinuous or continuous speech, task and language constraints, read versus spontaneous speech, and adverse conditions."

https://www.nejm.org/doi/abs/10.1056/NEJMp0910140 on early voice recognition/transcription. There are numerous commercial blogs that offer automated voice transcription systems. See https://blog.speech.com/2019/01/03/voice-recognition-and-the-electronic-health-record
for example.

Risks: Patient outcome benefit by replacing manual data entry with speech-to-text (STT) transcription. Physician burnout reduction attributed
to STT deployment v. manual data entry.

Why not hire more physicians to unburden their clinical load? $, probably.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 2 May 2019 23:52:26 -0400
From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe@gabegold.com>
Subject: Hertz, Accenture, and the blame game (Browser London)

The author says:

Either way, much of the reporting I’ve seen on this story has focused on the sheer cost of the works and made many excellent points suggesting that the business model of companies such as Accenture deliberately works to inflate fees once the client is already heavily committed. Beyond $7 million for
the initial discovery work https://www.browserlondon.com/services/research-analysis/ doesn't
say what the agreed contract fee was, but it does detail how -- once tied in
-- Hertz was continually billed by Accenture for fixes or new technology of dubious value.

What stands out to me, however, is the other aspect of this situation. How
did the amount spent by Hertz balloon up to $32 million before a stop was called to the work?

This highlights to me the fundamental issue many businesses seem to
encounter when embarking on large projects that are not within their own
core competency – namely their engagement with the day to day running of the project. After all, it wasn't until Hertz executive asked about progress on tablet views that the penny dropped that Accenture simply hadn't done many
of the things Hertz has asked of it.

I’ve read anecdotal evidence https://news.ycombinator.com/item%3Fid%3D19740706 on this project with Accenture, Hertz, in fact, fired much of its internal digital and
developmental talent, handing over full control to Accenture. This, in my opinion, is its first (if not biggest) mistake.

https://www.browserlondon.com/blog/2019/04/30/hertz-accenture-blame-game/


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