Tag Archives: trafficking

Get Hip to HIPAA: Hackers Want Your Health Data

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I have a question for you. What do hackers want more—your Social Security number or your health information?

If you guessed Social Security, you’re wrong. Here’s another fact I learned by writing fiction. The answer is health data, and criminal hackers are busy stealing it every chance they get.

Despite this alarming trend, there is some protection in place for patient privacy. In 1996, the United States legislature passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act  known as HIPAA. This act provides for data privacy and security provisions for safeguarding medical information.

The passage of this act was meant to protect patients’ privacy, but it means nothing to a criminal hacker whose day job is stealing your health data. The law has emerged into greater prominence in recent years with the proliferation of health data breaches caused by cyberattacks and ransomware attacks on health insurers and providers.

Hackers can fetch only around $15 a pop on the web for a Social Security number, but a medical record with personal information attached can go for $60 or more. 

Criminals can use health data to create fake identities that allow them to buy and resell medical equipment or drugs, to file fake claims with insurers, or to file fake tax returns. Hackers will use stolen hospital records for extortion—the patient must pay to keep from having their records sold on the dark web.

One reason health data fetches more dollars is that medical identity theft can go undetected for years. The modern practice of electronically storing medical records rather than using paper charts has resulted in a bonanza for criminal hackers. They can sneak in with a few taps on a keyboard, grab the data, and sneak out without being detected.,

How is this possible? One explanation is that medical facilities and private practices tend to put patient care items first when considering expenditures. If the budget is tight, money is not spent to replace aging computer systems, hire IT consultants, and upgrade security infrastructure. These cost-cutting practices make hackers’ work remarkably easy.

Visit these sites for more complete information on this topic:

https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/formsandpubs/laws/hipaa/Pages/1.00WhatisHIPAA.aspx

https://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/YourHealthInformationYourRights_Infographic-Web.pdf\

https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-individuals/guidance-materials-for-consumers/index.html

The security of health data is a recurring theme in the hospital-based Aimee Machado Mystery series published by Camel Press, an imprint of Epicenter Press. Available in print and eBook formats from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and by request at your local bookstore. http://camelpress.com/

Music Makes Mystery Memorable

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As a very small child, I recall my mother playing “The Third Man Theme” on her accordion. It was a compelling tune that evoked vivid memories for her of the 1949 suspense film, The Third Man. If you’ve never seen it, I highly recommend that you add it to your film list. Visit the following link for more about The Third Man.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Man

I suspect Mom’s fondness for the movie and the tune stemmed from her belief that Joseph Cotton, the handsome leading man, bore a remblance to my father.

The movie version of the “The Third Man Theme” was played on the zither. The YouTube version at the link below captures its essence and provides some still clips from the film, which the British Film Institute voted the greatest British film of all time. Listen for a bit and decide whether this theme might linger in your mind long after seeing the film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2N5RXvzhrs

With this memory in mind, I began to think of the music I chose for my novels when writing the Aimee Machado Mysteries. As the series grew, each book lent itself to a different genre. So far, these have included country, blues, classical piano, and in Spine Damage, the most recently released book, fado. In the U.S., fado is likely the least known of these musical genres, but in the Azores Islands and in Portugal, it is part of the fabric of the country. Fado became my choice of music genre for Spine Damage, because the story spans the globe from rural Northern California to the Azores Islands of Faial and Pico in the nine-island Atlantic archipelago.

In this fourth book in the series, the solution to the mystery is advanced by the discovery of links between Ana Moura, a real-life Portuguese female vocalist who is possibly the most famous fado singer in the world, and two iconic American musicians: Prince and Mick Jagger. The links between these musical artists are real and easily researched.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42p0_L_ycFk

Here is a sample of Moura’s artistry:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ia1ECfWJCM

Visit these links for more about Ana Moura and fado music.

https://www.newyorklatinculture.com/ana-moura-fado-town-hall

https://www.visitportugal.com/en/node/73868

Books in the hospital-based Aimee Machado Mysteries are published by Camel Press (an imprint of Epicenter Press) and are available for purchase in print and eBook format from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and from your local bookstore.

Camel Press

Want to Get Away with It? Commit Your Crime in International Waters

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Welcome to another fact I’ve learned by writing fiction.

This concerns what happens when a beautiful fifteen-year-old girl disappears after attending a yacht  party in the Portuguese Azores Islands. In Spine Damage, book four of the Aimee Machado Mystery series, family connections motivate Aimee to find the missing Azorean girl, but research into crime on the high seas reveals a stark reality. When crimes are committed in international waters, the victims often have no recourse.

A few years ago, Somalian pirates were making international headlines that resulted in Tom Hanks being cast to portray the captain of the hijacked Maersk Alabama—the case on which the movie Captain Phillips was based.

But piracy is just one example of crimes on the high seas. The list is long, and the highly diverse range of criminal activities are often underreported. It includes theft, rape and murder aboard cruise lines and private sailing vessels; drug smuggling and human trafficking; and illegal poaching of marine wildlife. And even today, unsuspecting citizens of poor countries are being shanghaied onto vessels where they’re forced to work under brutal conditions. Those who complain are likely to disappear.

What legal safeguards are in place to protect victims against these crimes?

www.britannica.com states in part:

“. . . maritime countries essentially control their territorial waters from the shore out to a distance of 12 miles . . . Within this zone, all laws of that country apply. With respect to international crimes [beyond the 12-mile limit] . . . any country or international organization can theoretically claim authority over the matter using the concept of universal jurisdiction . . . and try the assailants in their own national (or international) courts. Since the laws of individual countries and international courts are not recognized by all countries, however, there is often no fully accepted referee. Government officials in one country might choose not to recognize the legal authority of another.”

Back to our story . . .

Aimee is distressed by what she learns about crime in international waters, so she and her gang of crime-solvers travel from Timbergate, California to the mid-Atlantic Azores Islands and back seeking clues. Meanwhile, the missing teen’s fate remains unknown. Relentless pursuit of the truth finally uncovers the crime, but is it too little, too late?

For more information on crime in international waters, visit these sites:

https://www.britannica.com/story/are-there-laws-on-the-high-seas

http://mentalfloss.com/article/51708/are-high-seas-criminal-paradise

https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/07/23/sailing-beyond-the-rule-of-law/fight-high-seas-crime-with-accountability-and-commitment-to-prosecute

https://crimereads.com/crime-on-the-high-seas/

Visit www.sharonstgeorge.com again soon for another fact I’ve learned while writing fiction. 

Books in the hospital-based Aimee Machado Mysteries are published by Camel Press (an imprint of Epicenter Press) and are available for purchase in print and eBook format from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and from your local bookstore.

http://camelpress.com

Heavy Traffic Got You Down? It’s Worse Than You Think!

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While channel surfing the other day, I happened to land for a few moments on a program where a lovely twenty-eight-year-old Pakistani woman named Nelufar Hedayat was being interviewed. She spoke about a series titled The Traffickers on the Fusion Channel. My interest was aroused, as I had just finished the fourth book in my Aimee Machado Mystery series.

spine_damage_300

In my book, titled Spine Damage, a fifteen-year-old Portuguese girl goes missing from her home on an Azorean island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean after she makes the mistake of accepting an invitation to a yacht party.

I can’t reveal here what happens to my character, a lovely, naïve and headstrong teenager named Liliana Ferrera, as that would be a spoiler, and the book isn’t due for release until May of 2017. What I can say is that I wish more attention were being paid to the devastating impact every sort of illegal trafficking makes on countries around the world, including the United States of America.

Not once during the recent, seemingly endless presidential campaign, did I hear a candidate express a workable solution to the problem of trafficking, whether the merchandise is drugs, stolen art, rhino horns, or human beings (often children) who are sold for purposes of slave labor or for sex. Nor did I hear any reference to the illegal trade in black market organs.

Yes, there was mention of building a wall. Of course, Paul Revere could have reminded us that not all invasions come by land. A wall will not stop drug boats from reaching our shores, or freighters from docking in our harbors laden with containers (only a fraction of which are searched). And how many airplanes touch down in our country on remote landing strips? What about autos and foot traffic arriving from the north? Will we build a second wall from coast to coast along the Canadian border?

I hold the fictional answers to lovely Liliana’s fate, but what of the thousands of real-life human souls who have been taken from their homes and forced into a black-market world, or the flood of other illicit trade that feeds the appetites of criminal buyers in this country and others throughout the world? For more on this subject, watch Nelufar Hedayat on the Fusion channel on Sunday nights at 10:00 p.m..  http://fusion.net/page/the-traffickers/

Will an innocent, trusting young teen be rescued in time? Find out when Spine Damage, book four in the Aimee Machado Mystery series, is released in May of 2017. And in book five, we’ll continue the theme with a mystery surrounding illegal organ harvesting. Meanwhile, the first three books in the series are available in print and e-book versions by shopping online at Amazon or Barnes and Noble, or upon request at your local bookstore.