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Is Reporting for “Accidental” Political Downloads a HIT Security Game-Changer?

By Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA CMP™

[Publisher-in-Chief]

Recently, I read in The New York Times that Federal workers are being told to avoid the website WikiLeaks and stay away from those classified cables leaked from the US State Department! “Classified information, whether or not already posted on public websites or disclosed to the media, remains classified, and must be treated as such by federal employees and contractors”,  the Office of Management and Budget [OMB] said in a notice sent out last Friday.

Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40512200/ns/us_news-wikileaks_in_security

Of Advice … Not Threats?

According the release, The New York Times was told by a White House official that it does not advise agencies to block WikiLeaks or other websites on government computer systems. Nor does it bar federal employees from reading news stories about the leaks! But – and this is a big one – if they “accidentally download” any leaked cables, they are being told to notify their “information security offices.”

Too Many Conflicting Questions 

• Is document leaker PFC Bradley Manning a hero and a real patriot – not the mislabeling of an ACT as THE PATRIOT ACT – or traitor goat? What about Julian Assange – is he a full-disclosure hero or guilty of treason – should he be treated as an enemy combatant of the US Government?
• How could a mere PFC download a quarter million classified documents without raising a red flag? Is the government incompetent? Has it just issued a not so thinly veiled threat to its own citizens with this admonishment? Are we becoming more like China in our use and restrictions of the Internet? Was the big brother prescience of George Orwell’s 1984, correct?
• Is the admonishment of security officer notification following “accidental download” akin to the “don’t ask – don’t tell” policy on gays in the armed forces? So much for the transparency we were told our current administration wanted.
• Should we forget about, or modify, the eMR privacy debate and/or should HIPAA be modernized?
• Should Hillary Clinton resign?

Health Care Security Questions

• Who exactly is a government employee anyway? And, does this include workers in the VA system, prison health system, Indian Health Service, postal workers, Medicare and Medicaid recipients, school kids with government meal subsidies and/or independent contractors and recipients of budgetary pork projects, US tax credits or federal unemployment benefits, etc?
• Have these employed folks signed a HIPAA-like “business associate agreement” with Uncle Sam? Should government workers close their eyes and ears, too! And, with the expansion of federal government, does this mean that even more folks will have access to classified information [and more accidental downloads] than ever before? Who is left and allowed to read WikiLeaks and who is actually immune, or not?
• If government can not protect its own data, records, confidential information or websites with certainty, how does it expect a solo medical professional [DPM, DO, DDS, DC, etc] to do the same with eMRs, and at what cost! HIPAA rules and regulations spell ou very specific health policy mandates and onerous legal punishments and fines for protected health information [PHI] data breach don’t they; not just the notification of a Chief Medical Information Security Officer [CMISO]. Is this a federal double standard?

Historical Re-Do

Federal employees were told to not read the Pentagon Papers. The leaker, economist Daniel Ellsberg PhD, precipitated a national controversy in 1971 when he released them. The right of the press to publish the papers was upheld in New York Times Co. v. United States. As a response, the Nixon administration began a campaign against further leaks – and  a smear campaign against Ellsberg personally – by creating the White House “plumbers”, which in turn led to the Watergate burglary of the LA office of Dr. Lewis Fielding MD [Ellsberg’s psychiatrist] in an effort to discredit him. According to Ellsberg;

“The public is lied to every day by the President, by his spokespeople, by his officers. If you can’t handle the thought that the President lies to the public for all kinds of reasons, you couldn’t stay in the government at that level, or you’re made aware of it, a week … The fact is Presidents rarely say the whole truth—essentially, never say the whole truth—of what they expect and what they’re doing and what they believe and why they’re doing it and rarely refrain from lying, actually, about these matters.”

Note: “Presidential Decisions and Public Dissent”, Conversations with History, July 29, 1998].

Now … Four Decades Later

Has anything changed since the above scandal? Almost forty years later, those with security clearance across the board were given this same directive about WikiLeaks. Will they comply; nope! Did little Johnny refrain when his mother told him not to read Playboy magazine; of course not! The surest way to perusal, or unwanted behavior, is prohibition. Just tell someone NOT to do something, and watch that activity increase.  Human nature is human nature. Recall, the 18th. amendment [1919-1933] was repealed by the 21st. amendment whose 77th. anniversary is celebrated just this week.  

Assessment

Look, like most traditional news organizations and journalists, we at the ME-P fiercely advocate for our First Amendment Rights. Anyone looking at classified information without clearance, while not necessarily illegal when posted by a media organization, is considered to be making an “ethics” violation of the rules of secrecy as established by the intelligence community. And, we always strive to be ethical as part of our Judeo-Christian heritage.

But, citizens and members of the fourth estate are not in the intelligence community. What does this mean for average citizens and private doctors … nothing at all. What a HIPAA breach means to a medical professional however, is another serious matter! Fear the government’s admonition: Do as I say – Not as I do. Use paper medical records; eschew eMRs?

Voting Poll and Survey

Conclusion

Is reporting for “accidental” downloads, or security breaches, an HIT security game-changer? Your thoughts and comments on this ME-P are appreciated. Is WikiLeaks like eMR security; more potentially legal and economically damaging to the leaker than the outed? What about Julian Assange and the need to revise the HIPAA statutes? Is there an analogy here; or not?Feel free to review our top-left column, and top-right sidebar materials, links, URLs and related websites, too. Then, subscribe to the ME-P. It is fast, free and secure.

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Filed under: Breaking News, Ethics, Health Law & Policy, Information Technology, Op-Editorials | Tagged: Bradley Manning, business associate agreements, Daniel Ellsberg, david marcinko, Dr. Lewis Fielding, EMRs, First Amendment Rights, Hillary Clinton, HIPAA, Julian Assange, PHI, WikiLeaks | 15 Comments »