NHS England patient data 'uploaded to Google servers', Tory MP says • Hacker News Board

Re: NHS England patient data 'uploaded to Google servers', Tory MP says

#41

Post by atmosx » Mon, Mar 03, 2014, 3:02 PM UTC

nly wrote: post #26

Good. Imo, the fearmongering here is actually quite irrational. Google have more credibility (and money) to lose from a high publicity hack than government contractors who already act with impunity . If they'd invested in their own own map-reduce deployment we'd only be hearing another story about government contractors wasted millions of £ in taxpayers money on Big Brother data analysis. > The extracted information…

> Google have more credibility (and money) to lose from a high publicity hack than government contractors

No, Google's (along with other major USA based firms) credibility flew out the window the minute E. Snowden released the NSA documents. I don't think that any corporation who has to manage sensitive information is going to trust Google or any other USA based company in the post-Snowden Era. The risks outweigh the benefits.

Re: NHS England patient data 'uploaded to Google servers', Tory MP says

#42

Post by collyw » Mon, Mar 03, 2014, 3:03 PM UTC

shocks wrote: post #21

I shall be writing to my local MP about this, I'd encourage anyone else to do the same!

I agree its the right thing to do, but I have very little faith in it making a difference.

Re: NHS England patient data 'uploaded to Google servers', Tory MP says

#43

Post by revelation » Mon, Mar 03, 2014, 3:06 PM UTC

I trust Google more than I do "PA Consulting". Which begs the question, how did we get here? Who in their right mind sends out 27 DVDs with probably unencrypted, highly sensitive medical data? Even if the recipient is trustworthy, the transport isn't.

This data needs to be on a locked away government server that answers queries by 3rd party by throwing away half of the data and randomizing the remainder.

Re: NHS England patient data 'uploaded to Google servers', Tory MP says

#44

Post by collyw » Mon, Mar 03, 2014, 3:06 PM UTC

apoz wrote: post #38

It took weeks to upload? Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes...

We were shipping hard disks between the States and Spain. Unfortunately Spanish customs can make the delay unreasonably large (especially when someone put the value of the drive at $100).

Re: NHS England patient data 'uploaded to Google servers', Tory MP says

#45

Post by thirsteh » Mon, Mar 03, 2014, 3:06 PM UTC

collyw wrote: post #40

timthorn wrote: post #3

The report in question (linked in the article) provides "exceptional" evidence for the performance of Cloud technology by comparing a Google BigQuery search against an on-premises SQL Server query. So, cloud is good because map-reduce performs better than relational databases...

This sounds all too like the project I am collaborating on. It will be moderately big data (a few terabytes at most). The guys developing it just now are on their third NoSQL database - Elasticsearch. Them: "Look at how fast it is" Me: "You only have 3GB of data in it" Them: "Its so fast to develop, just connect Angular straight to Elasticsearch" Me: "Absolutely no concern given to security" Them: "The previous proje…

Ahh, hipsters.

Re: NHS England patient data 'uploaded to Google servers', Tory MP says

#46

Post by binarymax » Mon, Mar 03, 2014, 3:06 PM UTC

Once the data enters the US, it is subject to HIPAA. PA is criminally liable.

Re: NHS England patient data 'uploaded to Google servers', Tory MP says

#47

Post by fixermark » Mon, Mar 03, 2014, 3:14 PM UTC

revelation wrote: post #43

I trust Google more than I do "PA Consulting". Which begs the question, how did we get here? Who in their right mind sends out 27 DVDs with probably unencrypted, highly sensitive medical data? Even if the recipient is trustworthy, the transport isn't. This data needs to be on a locked away government server that answers queries by 3rd party by throwing away half of the data and randomizing the remainder.

Basically. An alternative headline for this story could be "Contractor moves sensitive data from insecure, non-audited medium to secure, audited medium."

Re: NHS England patient data 'uploaded to Google servers', Tory MP says

#48

Post by bananas » Mon, Mar 03, 2014, 3:18 PM UTC

k-mcgrady wrote: post #13

Why does the government repeatedly hire incompetent people?? They pay crazy amounts of money for it too. I hope there is a very public investigation into this. We are losing privacy every day now and this is one area of our lives that needs to remain private at all costs. There is very little I can see to gain and lots to lose from losing privacy in health. Especially in a public system like the NHS.

Because they're all part of the old boys network. No other reason.

Re: NHS England patient data 'uploaded to Google servers', Tory MP says

#49

Post by fixermark » Mon, Mar 03, 2014, 3:19 PM UTC

atmosx wrote: post #41

nly wrote: post #26

Good. Imo, the fearmongering here is actually quite irrational. Google have more credibility (and money) to lose from a high publicity hack than government contractors who already act with impunity . If they'd invested in their own own map-reduce deployment we'd only be hearing another story about government contractors wasted millions of £ in taxpayers money on Big Brother data analysis. > The extracted information…

> Google have more credibility (and money) to lose from a high publicity hack than government contractors No, Google's (along with other major USA based firms) credibility flew out the window the minute E. Snowden released the NSA documents. I don't think that any corporation who has to manage sensitive information is going to trust Google or any other USA based company in the post-Snowden Era. The risks outweigh the…

Except that we're now in the post-Snowden era, and companies like Google have taken measures to harden their networks against (among other things) GCHQ-esque intrusion.

In contrast, the other party in this story---the NHS---apparently hands out sensitive medical data on physical DVDs. I suppose on the plus side one doesn't need to worry about GCHQ being interested in illicitly acquiring that data, as if they have a relevant interest in it they can just ask their neighboring government agency.

While this was clearly an inappropriate act on the part of the contractor, it's not inappropriate for moving the data to a less secure medium or less credible institution than the origin.

Re: NHS England patient data 'uploaded to Google servers', Tory MP says

#50

Post by adamrneary » Mon, Mar 03, 2014, 3:21 PM UTC

The shame of all of this noise is that resources going into medical research today ends up getting spent on data security and building expensive, custom solutions that avoid using servers of a certain type or location in the name of privacy.

Sure, it would be more secure to conduct medical research without using computers at all, but what about all those people dying of nasty diseases? If I had 6 months to live, I probably wouldn't mind these "criminals" trying to find me a cure.

Instead, we have a deafening din of screaming about data privacy and little or no mention of the benefits of the medical research itself. If people could calm down a little bit about Big Brother, these guys could spend more time doing their jobs, helping sick people.