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My best guess is a simple search for anything diet/exercise/health related on my end has now triggered an onslaught of advertisements for companies that, if you give them a DNA sample, will use the genomic data to customize an exercise or diet plan specifically for your genetic typing. There are growing concerns that a greater accessibility to genetic data and the information surrounding health predispositions may lead to a world where insurance companies or loan providers could begin screening applicants based on this data. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) of 2008 prohibits health insurance companies from using genetic information to make coverage or rate decisions. Genetic testing companies can go back and test the sample in the future as advancements are made but will often give consumers a choice as to whether they want their sample kept or destroyed after it is initially tested.

Turns out it was carried out through a cyber hack that allowed the hacker to access a water treatment plant’s computer system. On February 5th, a cyber attacker was able to exploit weaknesses in the Bruce T. Haddock Water Treatment Plant’s computer network to remotely access the system and manage the treatment of the water, raising the levels of sodium hydroxide in the water from about 100 parts per million to over 11,000. This unfortunately means that systems or services that have computer and are tied to the internet are susceptible to something like what happened to the Bruce T. Haddock Water Treatment Plant. Honestly, there is a chance that the water treatment plant could have had all these other vulnerabilities that I discussed, and if they had a firewall in place this whole thing could have been avoided.

In a scenario like this, succession planning is even more critical because if one key person leaves, the organization could be in serious trouble without a plan in place that would effectively cover all the critical functions performed by the recently departed employee. If X person won the lottery today (we try to avoid the negative “got hit by a bus” cliché) and was never heard from by your organization again, would someone else be able to step in and perform their critical functions in a timely fashion? Another approach is to start with all critical functions in an organization, perhaps from a recent business impact analysis (BIA) as it should have all critical functions and owners in the organization. You can pretend person X is out for whatever reason and see if their backup, or backups, know how to perform the critical functions of that individual at a level where your production as an organization does not drop off.

Many states and countries have implemented privacy regulations to help protect consumer’s information, but there must also be a proactive data privacy approach from the individual consumer. The app’s developers have since removed this issue, but concerns remained due to the fact that the app’s developer ByteDance is headquartered in China, a leading US cyber adversary that often utilizes laws to allow for government inspectors to access the data held by private organizations within China. As the app rapidly gained popularity, cybersecurity experts warned that FaceApp’s terms of service agreement showed the company holds “perpetual, irrevocable” rights over its users’ app-generated selfies. Because FaceApp’s developers are headquartered in Russia, another top US cyber adversary, similar concerns immediately arose about how these selfies were being used and the privacy implications for individuals using the app.