This morning, I went to the doctor for a scheduled appointment. While she was looking at the results of blood tests from two years ago on the screen (and suggested repeating them for a follow-up), I realized she was using Windows 11. A detail came to mind. The doctor is extremely polite and friendly, so I asked her, "How do you handle the feature called Recall?" The doctor was taken aback and had no idea what I was talking about. I was about to drop the conversation, but she, being a serious professional, immediately called the technicians who manage their PCs to ask for clarification. They downplayed it, saying it's not an issue and that it's a feature "on all PCs, so we can't do anything about it." She started to express that she didn’t like it and wanted it deactivated. No luck: they won’t proceed because, according to them, even deactivating it is "a hack that could compromise future updates." She’s furious and will talk to her colleagues and the decision-makers. She wants secure systems because "there’s patient data involved."
In reality, patient data is stored on servers (which I haven't investigated), but everything that appears on the screen is, in my opinion, at risk.
I’ve offered to help them find a solution—because, if I'm right, all they need is LibreOffice and a browser. In that case, I’ll suggest one of the *BSD or Linux systems and do it for free.
I don’t want to make money off my doctor. I just want patient data to be (sufficiently) secure.
#IT #Recall #Windows #OwnYourData #Security #Privacy #RunBSD #Linux
@[email protected] @[email protected]
I work for an ambulance service and asked our higher up managers about this. I was initially fobbed off with "that won't be an issue because Microsoft won't enable it." When I pushed and said what if, I was told it wouldn't happen, because Microsoft has withdrawn it. When I pushed one last time and suggested a Linux or other OSS alternative would resolve the issue, the head of IT security said "the NHS doesn't like Open Source because it could be hiding malicious code" 🤦🏻♂️
@[email protected] @[email protected] This is unfortunately a very common problem. I also often hear that open source is less secure because "everyone can see how it's made." Fortunately, when I explain that security through obscurity has limited effectiveness, many agree.
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I understand that point of view, but to think that oss is "hiding" malware just blew my mind coming from a tech security manager.
@[email protected] @[email protected] I agree. open and hiding sounds like an oxymoron to me