Online dangers

BRANDEN GHENA pulls his car up under a traffic light in a city in Michigan. He plugs a radio transmitter into the car's power adapter, connects it to his laptop and, with a few keyboard strokes, takes control of every traffic light in town.

"We were able to advance the light," Ghena says of the experiment, which took place in May. "We could make it turn green."

Ghena, an electrical engineer at the University of Michigan, and his team were exploiting a vulnerability in the light's traffic controller. Present at every signalled intersection, the controller switches between red, yellow and green lights according to its programming. It can be set to change at regular intervals, or based on input from external traffic sensors.

These controllers are often networked across a city, and receive commands via a sequence of data packets. This allows engineers to manage them remotely, but anyone with network access can send these commands. All Ghena had to do was figure out which sequences of packets corresponded to which controller commands, and he gained full control.

As ya'll probably suspect I see a lot of different doctors. 3 specialists and my GP. All three specialist want me to sign up for online medical information, where I can get my labs, notes and schedule doctors appoitments whithout ever making a phone call. 

They can have their stuff send me a notice to come in say after a lab and schedule an appointment for me online. That seems kind of handy but I printed out the terms and agreement and studied them. They of course are from a private company that the doctors pay for the service and pressure me to do it. I would like to, but under the terms it voids the 1996 HIPA act and your medical information becomes a commodity for the service. Also if some one hacks their site it says they are not responsible for any damaged incurred as a result. I see serious problems with that as it gives them only a reputation incentive to keep my data safe. So I read this article why trying to make a decision if I want to do it. Ughh!

Next week when I go to one of them they are going to hit me up again to do it like they do every month. I am having a difficult time with this and really not in the mental shape to deal with right now. To be clear I am confused about what to do. I think I'll just keep waiting and tell them I am still thinking about it. Technology is a double edged sword, which side is sharper?