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Chaos Computer Club saves the German healthcare system 400M Euros

ccc.de

21–30 of 51 posts

Re: Chaos Computer Club saves the German healthcare system 400M Euros

#21

Can car manufacturers sell cars with a sealed tank, and you would have to buy a new car if it runs out of fuel?

There's the concept of an implied warrant of merchantability. If a thing has an ordinary purpose, and the thing sold fails in that ordinary purpose, the buyer has recourse.

Since a reasonable person buys a car as a long-lasting mode of transport, the sealed fuel tank would probably not meet expectations.

However, if the propulsion system were, say, nuclear fission, and the system lasted 5-10 years and then needed to be replaced, that might be a satisfactory product from this legal viewpoint. The NTSB and Department of Energy would have some things to say about it, though.

Re: Chaos Computer Club saves the German healthcare system 400M Euros

#23

When it comes to anything with computers it’s difficult to imagine ways to end up more incompetent than literally all German public (or pseudo-public, like here) agencies. You’d certainly get something more competent by collecting random strangers off the street. It’s virtually impossible to overstate how bad the situation in this area truly is in Germany.

The fact that the agency is public or private has no innate meaning in terms of efficiency. The people in the organization and the processes make it more or less efficient and this is true independently from where the funding is coming from. Can public organizations be made more efficient? Of course, as any organization can. Finally, in this case is it not a private firm that is promoting inefficiency via dishonest m…

Private companies have a stronger incentive to make choices that accrete value to the firm.

On average, this means they’re more rigorous in their vendor selection processes.

Therefore private entities are less likely to make bad purchases.

Re: Chaos Computer Club saves the German healthcare system 400M Euros

#24

For anyone who doesn't read German, here is a summary: The company in charge of the connectors for the health care system "Telematik" built devices with certificates that expire after 5 years. Instead of updating thousands of machines with new certificates, the company claims these need to be replaced for a total cost of 400M Euro. The CCC showed how the firmware can be changed to accept new certificates, making the…

I wonder how many golf trips with steak dinners and female "companions" the bureaucrats awarding the contracts got treated to... The German government has been lauded as this great bastion, "Look, their economy is still running!", but it's also has its corrupt elements. Besides, the whole roaring economy thing is related to making the rest of Europe peg its currency to the German one by way of the Euro, making the re…

This makes it sound like Germany had chosen to introduce the Euro whereas [1]:

>President François Mitterrand argued for the single currency because he hoped to bolster French influence in an EU that would otherwise fall under the sway of a unified Germany

However, you can argue that the continent suffers because Germany had reduced its labor costs [2], which unnecessarily moved production processes.

[1] https://www.economist.com/leaders/2012/11/17/the-time-bomb-a...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartz_concept

Re: Chaos Computer Club saves the German healthcare system 400M Euros

#25
post #17

For anyone who doesn't read German, here is a summary: The company in charge of the connectors for the health care system "Telematik" built devices with certificates that expire after 5 years. Instead of updating thousands of machines with new certificates, the company claims these need to be replaced for a total cost of 400M Euro. The CCC showed how the firmware can be changed to accept new certificates, making the…

I‘m assuming the German government wouldn’t be able to compel them to turn over their private key, but they could certainly make it very clear that they would jeopardise any future contracts if they refused to cooperate.

I'm assuming you haven't heard about corr^w lobby.

Re: Chaos Computer Club saves the German healthcare system 400M Euros

#28

When it comes to anything with computers it’s difficult to imagine ways to end up more incompetent than literally all German public (or pseudo-public, like here) agencies. You’d certainly get something more competent by collecting random strangers off the street. It’s virtually impossible to overstate how bad the situation in this area truly is in Germany.

This is nonsense. In Spain the FNMT issued certificates work fine and have simplified much daily business.

Re: Chaos Computer Club saves the German healthcare system 400M Euros

#29

Deepl: > Special routers are required in German doctors' offices to connect to the "telematics" health data network. After only five years of operation, there is no alternative to replacing the devices - at least according to the manufacturers. This exchange is expected to burden the already struggling healthcare system with additional costs of around 400 million euros. The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) shows that the ex…

>This exchange is expected to burden the already struggling healthcare system with additional costs of around 400 million euros. I'm always amazed at the gross inefficiencies of the German bureaucratic machine (including most public and government institutions), despite the traditional world renowned stereotype of "German efficiency", even though at this point I know I shouldn't be surprised anymore. The CCC is a nat…

Call me jaded, but my experience with public contracts told me that, most likely, the hardware will still be replaced or, best case, the company providing the firmware will get a follow up contract around 100 million to do the update.

Also expect close to no media coverage about that, or any political consequences. Heck, it took a thorough, highly public late night show investigation into the head of a government agency for cyber security and his close, and private links to former KGB agents and owners of cyber security firms, shady lobbying associations and whatnot for to be soon replaced. As if his known close ties to the private sector, and specific companies that ended up in the concil advising the government on cyber security, wasn't enough. One has to wonder so, how such a position doesn't require a security clearance. If I had close private contacts to known former KGB guys (known because the guy in question got an award in public for long service for the KGB and the state) I wouod have never passed these checks. Or if I had not mentioned them I would have lost my job immediately. Fun fact, it was the former conservative led government, and more specifically conservative politicians in cjarge of the ministry of interior, that put the guy in his position. And politians from the same party maintained the contact with Russian authorities.

Re: Chaos Computer Club saves the German healthcare system 400M Euros

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how many golf trips with steak dinners and female "companions" the bureaucrats awarding the contracts got treated to... The German government has been lauded as this great bastion, "Look, their economy is still running!", but it's also has its corrupt elements. Besides, the whole roaring economy thing is related to making the rest of Europe peg its currency to the German one by way of the Euro, making the re…

We've already been fined by the EU for refusing to work against corruption. It's a big thing here and voters only care for a few months after the news reports, if that much.

How can I vote to replace corruption?
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