AMAG Pharmaceuticals 

On May 3, 2019, AMAG Pharmaceuticals released new data at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Annual Clinical and Scientific Meeting on their investigational drug bremelanotide (BMT), for the treatment of hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD). HSDD is a legitimate medical condition affecting approximately 1 in 10 women in the U.S. At ACOG, AMAG also presented new data regarding Feraheme® (ferumoxytol) related to iron deficiency anemia (IDA) resulting from abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB). Iron deficiency anemia is a common, treatable condition that occurs when iron stores deplete due to an imbalance between iron uptake and iron utilization. IDA affects an estimated 5 million adults in the United States. Women are generally at higher risk for IDA than men, and there are several causes of heavy uterine bleeding that result in low iron levels.

America’s Health Insurance Plans

The Modern Medicaid Alliance (MMA), convened by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), spent this spring collaborating with our members to spotlight the diverse populations who rely on Medicaid. That included a resource on “Medicaid Millennials” to detail the unique health challenges the generation faces and highlight the critical role Medicaid plays in supporting them and an interview with Blue Star Families, a nonprofit organization that works to support military families, to explore the role that Medicaid plays in providing coverage to veterans and their families. In May, we took a focus on Mental Health Month with a one-pager on Medicaid and mental health and interviews with Alliance members who work in the mental health arena.

In June, the Alliance is partnering with the Health Care Transformation Task Force (HCTTF) to host a Congressional briefing on “Pursuing Value in Medicaid: States as Transformation Leaders.” The briefing will feature health care leaders from across the industry, educating congressional staff, policymakers, and health care industry stakeholders about significant successes and challenges from state-led health care innovation efforts. 

ASHP

ASHP has become a sponsoring member of the National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative on Countering the U.S. Opioid Epidemic. The mission of the Action Collaborative is to convene and catalyze public, private, and non-profit stakeholders to develop, curate, and disseminate multi-sector solutions designed to reduce opioid misuse and improve outcomes for individuals, families, and communities affected by the opioid crisis. ASHP made a number of commitments to the Action Collaborative, including, among others, creation and dissemination of patient and prescriber education on pain management and opioid abuse mitigation best practices, enhanced patient access to evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder through increased utilization of pharmacists on the healthcare team, and standardization of a framework for pain stewardship to coordinate pain management, opioid prescribing, and use of non-opioid therapies.

BeMedWise at NeedyMeds

This October, BeMedWise at NeedyMeds will celebrate 34 years of “Talk About Your Medicines” Month (TAYMM). It’s never been more important to be BeMedWise and “Talk About Your Medicines,” a well-recognized health observance month, that has grown and expanded over three decades to stimulate conversations between patients, caregivers and their healthcare providers about all the types of medicines they may take, with a focus on what to know about a medication in terms of expected health outcomes, possible side effects, benefits, and potential risks. For 2019, we plan to keep a spotlight on opioid abuse awareness and prevention, safe storage, and disposal. We will showcase various BeMedWise initiatives that include all ages across the lifespan, as well as the valuable educational campaigns of the BeMedWise Council Supporters and Partners such as NCL’s Script Your Future, Allied Against Opioid Abuse, FDA’s “Remove the Risk”, CDC’s Protect Initiative, the Acetaminophen Awareness Coalition’s “Know Your Dose” and more.

NeedyMeds has launched a new discount program for critical durable medical equipment which is available to users of the NeedyMeds Drug Discount card and provides a cost savings of up to 40 percent when purchasing durable medical equipment and diabetic supplies. Included in the savings are popular items such as canes, crutches, walkers, splints, incontinence supplies, and more. Also covered are diabetic supplies such as meters, testing strips, lancets, and diabetic shoes. According to a statement by Rich Sagall, MD, president of NeedyMeds: “We are pleased to be able to help more people save on so many medically-necessary items. Our mission is to help people with the financial burdens of healthcare, and this new program assists in an area where there is little help available.” More details are available on the NeedyMeds website on the Durable Medical Equipment Discounts page and dme.myvirtualdoctor.com where consumers can locate and purchase these products. Users of the Drug Discount card already save millions of dollars every month on the cost of medications. There are no eligibility guidelines, meaning anyone can take advantage of this savings. The only restriction is that the savings are only for cash-paying customers and can’t be combined with private insurance or state or federal programs.

Read the latest blogs from BeMedWise – Meeting the Medicine Information Needs of Americans with Vision Loss and NeedyMeds – Doctors Prescribe Too Many Medications. To learn more about how you can get involved in BeMedWise, including opportunities to collaborate on educational program development, webinars and TAYMM, contact Deborah.Davidson@needymeds.org. 

CDC’s Medication Safety Program

A recent American Journal of Preventive Medicine article by CDC’s Medication Safety Program estimated the rates of emergency department visits for unintentional pediatric ingestions of over-the-counter liquid medications. These product-specific rates of emergency department visits for accidental ingestions can be used to help target preventive interventions, such as enhancing safety packaging with flow restrictors.

Additionally, the Up and Away campaign recently launched its first safe storage testimonial video, reminding families with young children that safe medicine storage is critical to poison prevention and year-round household safety. Up and Away is an initiative of the PRevention of Overdoses and Treatment Errors in Children Taskforce (PROTECT) in partnership with the CDC.

Council for Affordable Healthcare

In May, the Council for Affordable Health Coverage (CAHC) released a package of policies to improve the affordability of and access to prescription drugs. While our comprehensive package contains numerous proposals, we are explicitly highlighting and advocating for policies centered around: value-based arrangements for drugs in federal health programs (Cassidy/Warner), a real-time benefit check tool so providers and patients can discuss drug prices at the point-of-prescription, and a Part D out-of-pocket cap for seniors. CAHC unveiled our drug policies at a May 10 briefing on Capitol Hill, and we are continuing advocacy efforts around these proposals this summer.

CAHC also held several briefings on the Administration’s ANPRM on the International Pricing Index and surprise billing. A summary of these briefings, along with all materials, can be found here.

This summer, CAHC is continuing our annual Capitol Hill education efforts around Medicare Parts B and D. We invite members and friends to join us during these meetings to talk about your organizations’ perspectives. To learn more about these efforts or request upcoming meeting dates, please contact Amanda Krzepicki (Amanda.krzepicki@cahc.net).

Healthcare Distribution Alliance

Spring has been a busy time for Allied Against Opioid Abuse (AAOA) and its partner organizations. In March, AAOA joined other leading national voices to raise awareness about the importance of prescription opioid safety. AAOA, along with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, National Safety Council and others, contributed content to a special insert in the March 27 edition of USA Today as part of an opioid awareness issue developed by Mediaplanet.  

Meanwhile, the National Pledge to Pause effort, a collaboration between AAOA and the PA Foundation, continued during the American Academy of PAs (AAPA) 2019 Conference in Denver. Students attending the conference joined the Pledge to Pause effort by committing to take a moment to pause and talk with their patients before prescribing an opioid medication. Pledge to Pause reminds providers of the importance of engaging with and educating their patients every time an opioid is prescribed.

AAOA has also been participating in conferences around the country, discussing efforts to educate patients, caregivers, and the medical community about opioid abuse prevention. AAOA returned for the second consecutive year to the Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit in Atlanta, Ga., and participated in a discussion at the National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations’ (NASPA) Spring Meeting about how pharmacists are addressing the opioid abuse epidemic. Additionally, the Healthcare Distribution Alliance (HDA) 2019 Distribution Management Conference and Expo brought together representatives from AAOA national partners — including founding member HDA, as well as the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) and PA Foundation — for a panel discussion about the importance of convening stakeholders to address the opioid abuse epidemic.

AAOA will be holding a partner call in early summer to plan for the rest of 2019. For more information on AAOA activities or to get involved with the organization, please contact Lee Lynch (llynch@reservoircg.com).

HealthyWomen

HealthyWomen is pleased to announce a two-day science, innovation, and technology summit: Chronic Pain in Women: Focus on Treatment, Management, and Barriers, July 17-18, 2019, at the Turf Valley Resort in Ellicott City, MD. This two-day event will advance and amplify the current dialogue on the impact of chronic pain on women’s health. We will address the current knowledge gaps and existing challenges in treating and managing chronic pain in women. Leading experts will join HealthyWomen for the robust examination of cutting edge and research on chronic pain, patients’ lived experiences and industry perspectives throughout the summit. View agenda. Please join us. Register here.

In anticipation of the summit, the HealthyWomen team is fielding a survey focusing on how chronic pain impacts women’s lives. Please take a moment to complete the survey, if you have a chronic pain experience to share (and/or share the survey with your members). All survey input is anonymous. HealthyWomen will be sharing results with researchers, clinicians, and patients at HealthyWomen’s Chronic Pain Summit, July 17-28.

Johnson & Johnson

On March 28, 2019, Johnson & Johnson released the 2018 Janssen U.S. Transparency Report. This annual report provides an inside look at how Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson remains committed to responsible business practices that put patients first. The report highlights details on how Janssen invests resources into research and development, practices for pricing medicine, and innovative company programs that help people gain access to the medicines they need.

The top five things to know about the report include:

1) In 2018, the average net price of Janssen medicines declined 6.8%.; 2) Janssen’s investment in research and development is 86% more than what is spent on marketing and sales.; 3) In March 2019 Janssen voluntarily began including list price and typical out-of-pocket costs in U.S. pharmaceutical TV advertising, starting with the company’s most popular medicine.; 4) Janssen helped approximately 1 million patients with access, affordability, and treatment support through the Janssen CarePath program. This includes nearly 550,000 commercially insured patients who reduced their out-of-pocket costs through the Janssen CarePath Savings Program.; 5) Janssen worked with stakeholders to advance ideas, such as value-based care models and practical policy solutions to bring down costs for patients, that can help to create a better healthcare system.

For more information and to read the full report, visit https://transparencyreport.janssen.com.

National Community Pharmacists Association

Drug pricing

In early April, NCPA submitted comments on the Trump Administration proposal to prohibit the use of rebates in contracts between Part D plan sponsors and drug manufacturers. And in his remarks at the NCPA Congressional Pharmacy Fly-In, Sec. Azar said, “we are going to pay close attention to all the input we receive from stakeholders, like you.” In our comments, we emphasized that while we stand with the administration in its efforts to lower drug prices, several “minimum requirements” are needed to eliminate the barriers inhibiting community pharmacists’ relationships with patients. These requirements include fixing pharmacy DIR, timely payments, increasing transparency and financial viability, appropriate agency oversight of implementation, protections for small business, and the opportunity for independent community pharmacies to choose their business partners. In addition to NCPA’s comments, 260 comments were submitted by pharmacists through NCPA’s grassroots portal. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently released a financial score on this proposed HHS OIG Safe Harbor rule, stating that if the proposed rule is finalized in its current form, the change will increase federal spending by $177 billion between 2020 and 2029.

National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health

NPWH just held its largest Women’s Sexual Health Course for NPs to date, with over 200 NPs joining us in Orlando. Registration for our 22^nd Annual Premier Women’s Healthcare Conference, being held Oct. 16-19, 2019, in Savannah, GA, is now open. We also held the latest convening of our BOlder Women’s Health Coalition in May. If you are interested in learning more about the coalition, please click here.

PhRMA

Last year, PhRMA’s member companies committed to providing patients and families with more transparency about medicine costs by voluntarily pointing patients to medicine cost information through their direct-to-consumer (DTC) television advertising. As part of this effort, PhRMA launched a new online platform on May 2, 2019 – the Medicine Assistance Tool, or MAT. MAT provides patients, caregivers, and health care providers with links to these new websites and includes an enhanced search tool to connect patients with medicine-specific financial assistance programs. In addition, MAT has resources to help patients navigate their insurance coverage. This effort is just one of several ways our members are working to ensure patients have the information they need to make more informed health care decisions.

For more information on the cost and financial assistance for brand-name medicines provided by the Medicine Assistance Tool, visit MAT.org.

Verde Environmental Technologies

Verde® Environmental Technologies, Inc., maker of the Deterra® Drug Deactivation System weighed in recently with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Government Accountability Office (GAO), White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to support programs and legislation that acknowledge and promote the effectiveness of at-home drug deactivation and disposal methods. These government agencies recognize deactivation as an effective means of ridding homes of unused, unwanted, and expired medications. This is encouraging news as Deterra is the only at-home disposal option that PERMANENTLY DEACTIVATES the drug rendering it unrecoverable and non-retrievable for all practical purposes. Moreover, Deterra meets the safe disposal standard for controlled substances set by the SUPPORT Act (SEC. 3032. SAFETY-ENHANCING PACKAGING AND DISPOSAL FEATURES of P.L. 115-271). For more information, visit DeterraSystem.com or call 612.568.1128.

Despite saber-rattling, U.S. woefully unprepared for cyber war with Iran

By John Breyault (@jammingecono, johnb@nclnet.org)
NCL Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud

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Editor’s note: As the United States launches cyberattacks against Iran, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is warning that defenses against possible retaliation appear to be lacking. A bi-partisan Senate committee found that several high-profile agencies left Americans’ sensitive data vulnerable to hackers. Sen. Warner is one of several Senators asking for answers about the recent spate of healthcare data breaches. And Sen. Hassan could find herself in hot water if it’s found that she failed to notify constituents affected by a data breach in her office.             

And now, on to the clips! 

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U.S. military launches cyber strike against Iran. The cyberattacks were approved by President Trump and “specifically targeted Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps computer system.” The attacks “disabled Iranian computer systems that controlled its rocket and missile launchers. …” (Source: The Associated Press)

DHS warns businesses that they will be targeted by Iranian hackers. In the wake of the U.S. cyberattacks, Chris Krebs, director of the Homeland Security Department’s cybersecurity division, warned that Iranian hackers have already begun “targeting U.S. companies with specialized malicious software designed to wipe the contents of their computer networks rather than to simply steal their data.” (Source: Washington Post)

Quick hit: DHS announces that it is unlikely to meet its cybersecurity goals. (Source: Department of Homeland Security)

Healthcare data breaches under new Congressional scrutiny. High-profile breaches at medical bill collectors and diagnostics companies that compromised 20 million consumer records are attracting attention from Congress. “I am concerned about your supply chain management, and your third-party selection and monitoring process,” wrote Sen. John Warner (D-VA) in a letter to Quest Diagnostics, one of the breached entities. (Source: Bloomberg)

Did Sen. Hassan violate breach notification laws? Right-wing media is abuzz over the sentencing of a former staffer for Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) who engineered a massive breach of the Senator’s IT systems, compromising significant amounts of sensitive constituent data. Now questions are being raised about whether Hassan complied with relevant data breach notification laws related to the incident. “Hassan’s office provided no evidence to the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) that it had disclosed its own breach, and several New Hampshire residents who had communicated with Hassan’s office told the DCNF they had not received any notification that their information could be in the hands of bad actors,” wrote @lukerosiak. (Source: Daily Caller)

EFF: Federal privacy bill should include a data security standard. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EEF), a leading digital civil liberties group, is calling for stronger data security protections as part of its recommendations for comprehensive privacy legislation. “Also, where a company fails to meet this duty, it should be easier for people harmed by data breaches—including those suffering non-financial harms—to take those companies to court.” (Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation)

Bi-partisan Senate committee found that U.S. agencies left sensitive data vulnerable to breaches for decades. The Committee found that the Departments of State, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Transportation, Education, Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, and the Social Security Administration left “Americans’ personal information open and vulnerable to theft.” (Source: The Hill)

City of Baltimore approves additional $10 million in cyberattack relief. As the city moves into its 9^th week since a ransomware attack, its water billing system remains offline. (ABC News)

Lawsuit against Facebook for compromising 29 million accounts allowed to move forward. A federal appeals court in San Francisco rejected Facebook’s attempt to block the lawsuit and allowed “claims against Facebook [to] proceed for negligence and for failing to secure users’ data as promised.” (Source: Bloomberg)

Stat du jour: 50 percent of manufacturers experienced a breach in the last 12 months. Of the breached entitles surveyed, @sikichllp found that 11 percent suffered a “major” breach. (Source: Industry Week)

National Consumers League
Published July 3, 2019

With Baltimore being held hostage, ransomware fears growing once again 

By John Breyault (@jammingecono, johnb@nclnet.org)
NCL Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud

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Editor’s note: Fears of another ransomware attack like 2017’s WannaCry virus prompted Microsoft to take the unusual step to provide security updates for otherwise unsupported operating systems. The patch was of little solace to the city of Baltimore, which suffered an unrelated ransomware attack that shut down its email system, among other critical functions. Baltimore’s cyber woes are not unheard of, however, as one study found that ransomware attacks on state and local governments are on the rise despite the fact that many state and local governments are refusing to pay the ransom. One reason for this concerning trend could be that two prominent data recovery firms, whose clients included local municipalities, paid off Iranian hackers in secret, fueling fears that the firms are incentivizing hackers to go after city governments.

And now, on to the clips!

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City of Baltimore hit with crippling ransomware attack. @magmill95 reports that the attack “took down several of the city’s services last week, including some of the capabilities of the Baltimore City Department of Transportation, the Department of Public Works, and the Department of Finance.” At the time of the drafting of this publication, “the city was still unable to send or receive email.” Officials “could not give an exact time for when the systems would all be fully operational.” (Source: The Hill)

Firms promised to free data from ransomware attacks with technology. In reality, they were secretly paying Iranian hackers. In the wake of the SamSam ransomware attacks, tech firms promised to use their “own data recovery methods but instead payed ransoms, sometimes without informing victims such as local law enforcement agencies. …” In addition to misleading their clients, the firms “charge[ed] victims substantial fees on top of the ransom amounts.” (Source: ProPublica)

Report watch: Ransomware attacks on state and local governments are on the rise. @uuallan found that “while 2018 saw a small resurgence in overall ransomware attacks, there was a sharp jump in ransomware attacks against state and local governments, and that surge seems to be continuing into 2019.” (Source: Recorded Future)

ICE pays contractors $1.2 million to hack into Americans’ iPhones. The expenditure reveals the high priority that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed on undermining “passcodes and other security features Americans use to keep their information private.” (Source: Washington Post)

Microsoft scrambles to stop WannaCry 2.0 before it happens. Last week, Microsoft took the “unusual step of releasing security updates for unsupported but still widely-used Windows operating systems like XP and Windows 2003, citing the discovery of a ‘wormable’ flaw that the company says could be used to fuel a fast-moving malware threat like the WannaCry ransomware attacks of 2017.” (Source: Krebs on Security)

Russia hacked two Florida election systems during the 2016 election. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis acknowledged that the breach occurred but stressed that “[n]othing that affected the vote count,” took place. Followers of election security will recall that “[l]ast year, former Florida Sen. Bill Nelson warned that Russia had ‘penetrated’ Florida’s voter registration systems, but election officials denied that vehemently at the time. Then-Gov. Rick Scott, who defeated Nelson in the Senate race, decried Nelson’s claims and said they ‘only serve to erode public trust in our elections at a critical time.’” (Source: NPR)

Rhode Island launches first statewide cybercrime hotline. In Rhode Island, cyber victims need to only dial 211 to “be connected with an operator who is trained to connect the victim with the proper organization to help. These include government organizations, local nonprofits, and local, state and federal agencies and resources to help protect them from further attacks and recover any money that may have been lost.” (Source: Patch)

Ajit Pai’s FCC is keeping commissioners in the dark about phone location data investigation. After news broke that AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile were selling their customers’ real-time cell phone location data without their consent, the FCC vowed to look into the matter. Months later, the public still does not know what happened, and FCC Commissioners are complaining about being kept in the dark by their own agency. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel publicly complained that “[s]o far it appears that the FCC is more interested in protecting the privacy of its investigation than the privacy of wireless consumers across the country.” (Source: Vice)

Upcoming Events

June 27, 2019: Federal Trade Commission’s PrivacyCon – Washington, DC
Each year, the FTC convenes a group of privacy experts, academics, policymakers, and regulators to discuss the latest research surrounding consumer privacy and data security. (Source: Federal Trade Commission)

National Consumers League
Published May 23, 2019

Nielsen’s departure from DHS deepens cyber anxiety, cyber insurance loopholes, and a worsening breach at Facebook

By John Breyault (@jammingecono, johnb@nclnet.org)
NCL Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud

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Editor’s note: Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s exit from DHS signals further uncertainty for U.S. cybersecurity strategy. As the Trump Administration continues to lack a coherent strategy, hackers demonstrated the severity of force they can bring to bear after they interrupted the Weather Channel’s live broadcast. Likewise, in an unrelated incident, the state of Ecuador suffered 40 million cyberattacks last week in retaliation for revoking the asylum of WikiLeak founder Julian Assange. 

In other news, Facebook chose to announce that its Instagram breach affected millions of accounts, not the tens of thousands of accounts it had previously reported, the same morning that the findings of the Muller investigation became public. Many privacy advocates were skeptical of the choice of timing. 

Finally, companies relying on cyber insurance policies to protect them in the event of an attack are increasingly finding that they may not be covered from a state-sponsored hack like 2017’s NotPetya attack. 

And now, on to the clips!

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Experts: Nielsen exit from DHS will harm cybersecurity. A majority of experts surveyed by the Washington Post are concerned that former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s exit will further hamper America’s cybersecurity. “’Cybersecurity talent at Kirstjen’s level is unique, and someone with government policy experience is even more scarce,’ commented Mark Weatherford, a former DHS cybersecurity official who is now global information security strategist at Booking Holdings. ‘This is another huge blow to our nation’s momentum in the cybersecurity arena and the effects with be felt even more broadly on the international stage.’” (Source: Washington Post)  

Cyber insurance providers relying on ‘cyberwar’ declarations to avoid paying. As cyber threats have escalated, companies relying on cyber insurance policies to protect them are increasingly finding that state-sponsored attacks provide a loophole for their claims to be denied. @satariano and @nicoleperlroth write that “[w]hen the United States government assigned responsibility for NotPetya to Russia in 2018, insurers were provided with a justification for refusing to cover the damage. Just as they wouldn’t be liable if a bomb blew up a corporate building during an armed conflict, they claim not to be responsible when a state-backed hack strikes a computer network. … The cases have broader implications for government officials, who have increasingly taken a bolder approach to naming-and-shaming state sponsors of cyberattacks, but now risk becoming enmeshed in corporate disputes by giving insurance companies a rationale to deny claims.” (Source: New York Times) 

Instagram password breach much larger than originally reported. Last month Facebook announced “that it had stored hundreds of millions of user passwords unencrypted on its servers, a massive security problem. At the time, it said that ‘tens of thousands’ of Instagram passwords were also stored in this way.” Last Thursday, Facebook admitted the breach actually included millions of Instagram users, not “tens of thousands.” (Source: Recode)  

Hackers take Weather Channel off the air for 90 minutes.  Last week, hackers attacked the Weather Channel’s live broadcast early in the morning. During the attack, the network was able to play “canned content, before broadcasting from backup services.” (Source: WinBuzzer) 

Presidential candidate John Delaney proposes Department of Cybersecurity. Delaney’s proposal marks the first major cybersecurity push of the 2020 cycle. @kellymakena reports that “the proposed Department of Cybersecurity would be led by a cabinet-level secretary who would be in charge of implementing the United States’ cybersecurity strategy.” (Source: The Verge)  

Cost of data breaches grows to $3.86 million per breach. The Ponemon Institute’s 2018 Cost of Data Breach Study found that the total cost of a breach grew by 6 percent last year. Each compromised record now costs companies an average of $148. (Source: NBC News) 

Personal Hotmail, MSN, and Outlook emails have been compromised. As a result of the breach, hackers were “able to access email content from a large number of Outlook, MSN, and Hotmail email accounts.” The breach did not affect corporate accounts. (Source: Motherboard)   

DHS and FBI: Election systems in all 50 states were targeted by Russia. The Joint Intelligence Bulletin (JIB) expanded by stating, “the FBI and DHS assess that Russian government cyber actors probably conducted research and reconnaissance against all US states’ election networks leading up to the 2016 Presidential elections.” One DHS spokesman said: “We assume the Russian government researched and in some cases targeted election infrastructure in all 50 states in an attempt to sow discord and influence the 2016 election.” (Source: Ars Technica) 

In wake of Assange arrest, Ecuador was hit with 40 million cyberattacks. After removing Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s political asylum status, “Javier Jara, undersecretary of the electronic government department of the telecommunications ministry, said the country had suffered ‘volumetric attacks’ that blocked access to the internet following ‘threats from those groups linked to Julian Assange. ...’ Hardest-hit were the foreign ministry, the central bank, the president’s office, the internal revenue service, and several ministries and universities.” (Source: AFP) 

Upcoming Events

June 27, 2019: Federal Trade Commission’s PrivacyCon – Washington, DC
Each year, the FTC convenes a group of privacy experts, academics, policymakers, and regulators to discuss the latest research surrounding consumer privacy and data security. Researchers are encouraged to apply to present at the conference by March 15, 2019. (Source: Federal Trade Commission)

National Consumers League
Published April 25, 2019