Cyber Round Up: Shared Medical Data Without Consent; May Won’t Rule Out Cyber Response to N. Korea; The Fifth Domain Won’t be Sole Battleground

Sharing Medical Data Is Noble, but Not Without Patients’ Consent (WSJ):  A law passed late year was considered the biggest healthcare reform law since Obamacare.  Most of it was positive, a recent article says, but patient privacy rights took a big hit when the 21st Century Cures Act went into effect.  The law does not allow health care providers or patients to opt out of certain information sharing requirements.  According to the article, courts have upheld this provision under the third party doctrine as patients voluntarily give their information to their doctors. The article also addresses genetic information and another proposed bill that would have a similar effect.  The full piece can be read here.

Theresa May refuses to rule out military action or cyber attacks against North Korea after ‘outrageous’ missile launch (Mirror):  North Korea’s recent missile launch over Japan could have consequences that spill into the cyber world.  An article early today recapped the Prime Minister’s comments to reporters during her current trip to Japan.  While stressing on their desire to work with international partners, May specifically called out China for assistance in reigning in North Korea’s ‘outrageous’ attacks.  May did not rule out military action or high tech cyber operations.  The article noted that Defense Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said earlier this year that the UK would engage in offensive cyber operations when necessary.  The full article can be read here.

The Fifth Domain Won’t be Sole Battleground (The Cipher Brief):  The discussion of cyber as the fifth domain of warfare, and what warfare might look like in that domain, has a wide breadth of views.  Recent commentary highlights the extremes of this discussion and then poses a more moderate view point. James Van de Velde says that cyber needs to be viewed not as a separate and unique domain but as one that works in tandem with others.  The piece includes a discussion of whether cyber is truly different from everything else. Cyber, on its own, the article argues, is not enough to change the relationship between states. The full article can be read here.