

Lucas Mearian
Senior Reporter
Senior Reporter Lucas Mearian covers Windows, Future of Work issues, mobile, Apple in the enterprise, and healthcare IT.

FAQ: What is blockchain and how can it help business?
The distributed ledger technology better known as blockchain has the potential to eliminate huge amounts of record-keeping, which can get confusing when multiple parties are involved in a transaction. But for many companies it, and...

Blockchain: 'Overhyped' buzzword or real-deal enterprise solution?
While blockchain technology may be a hotspot in data privacy, experts disagree about whether it’s a good fit for enterprises that have traditionally relied on centralized data control.

Newer car tech opens doors to CIA attacks
The revelation that the CIA has looked into hacking vehicles, possibly for the purpose of assassinations, flies in the face of a presidential order requiring U.S. agencies to reveal flaws to manufacturers to protect Americans.

IBM Watson, FDA to explore blockchain for secure patient data exchange
IBM's Watson Health division and the FDA are teaming up to explore using blockchain technology for secure, efficient and scalable exchange of health data, which could lead to enormous advances in research.

Government, carmakers more worried than ever about vehicle cyber attacks
As lawmakers are calling for regulators to do more to address the threat of vehicle hacking, car companies are recognizing their vulnerabilities and investing in cybersecurity tools to protect their ever more sophisticated vehicles.

Many hospitals transmit your health records unencrypted
A new survey by a health organization shows that only about 68% of acute providers and 48% of non-acute providers encrypt patient data -- and up to 22% of hospitals don't have firewalls.

Illinois hospital chain to pay record $5.5M for exposing data about millions of patients
Advocate Health Care Network, which operates 12 hospitals and hundreds of satellite locations, was fined a record amount by the federal government under HIPAA privacy rules for lax security.

Google says government requests for user data at all-time high
Google's semi-annual "Transparency Report" shows that in the second half of 2015, U.S. government agencies made more than 40,000 requests for access to user data.

Tesla to make 'significant' upgrades to Autopilot
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Sunday his firm will send over-the-air upgrades to its vehicles with Autopilot capability, after a crash involving the technology resulted in the death of a driver.

Defective products could result from cyberattacks on industrial 3D printers
With the growth of Internet-connected 3D printers, researchers say there's a threat of hackers tweaking manufacturing specifications and introducing defects that affect the reliability of parts for numerous industries.

Hackers are coming for your healthcare records -- here’s why
Because patient information can be so lucrative, healthcare organizations and insurance companies are being targeted by hackers and should expect to eventually suffer a security breach.