Fax machines
#31
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Feb 2010
Location: Temecula, CA
Posts: 4,759
Re: Fax machines
I don't disagree with you - but when the output tray of the recipient's fax machine is unattended, a fax is as secure as boiling water in a chocolate teapot. So many times in a doctor's office or pharmacy I could have just reached over and taken some presumably sensitive documents.
#32
Re: Fax machines
I don't disagree with you - but when the output tray of the recipient's fax machine is unattended, a fax is as secure as boiling water in a chocolate teapot. So many times in a doctor's office or pharmacy I could have just reached over and taken some presumably sensitive documents.
#33
Re: Fax machines
I don't disagree with you - but when the output tray of the recipient's fax machine is unattended, a fax is as secure as boiling water in a chocolate teapot. So many times in a doctor's office or pharmacy I could have just reached over and taken some presumably sensitive documents.
#36
Re: Fax machines
i haven't heard of anyone trying to put an electric kettle on a range, but I'm sure it has been done. There seems to be a lack of knowledge of kettles and teapots in the US.
#37
Re: Fax machines
Indeed. At the last place I worked if someone noticed an unlocked computer they would send a department wide message saying they will bring donuts in for everyone.
#38
Re: Fax machines
I still found it crazy that when I bought a car from a dealer in another state I handed over a cashiers check for the balance and drove it away without them doing any sort of validation on it - in the UK nobody in their right mind would let you drive a car away without cleared funds!
#39
Re: Fax machines
Faxes are way less secure than e-mail, any moron can spoof the sending number, how many calls do you get a day that claim to be from number X and it's someone in India trying to con you? Now if I can get into your SMTP I can spoof any e-mail address I want, but even basic SMTP implementations don't allow you to do that without a username and password.
Not that I disagree with your general comments about e-mail, one of my pet peeves are people who use webmail without SSL certificates, which Exchange and Office 365 force you to have, but various open source programs don't. The problem is that TLS and SSL do put an overhead on the server but seriously nowadays with how fast computers are, who cares?
Faxes though overall are way less secure. There are various ways of spoofing sending and receiving numbers and intercepting them over-the-wire.
Not that I disagree with your general comments about e-mail, one of my pet peeves are people who use webmail without SSL certificates, which Exchange and Office 365 force you to have, but various open source programs don't. The problem is that TLS and SSL do put an overhead on the server but seriously nowadays with how fast computers are, who cares?
Faxes though overall are way less secure. There are various ways of spoofing sending and receiving numbers and intercepting them over-the-wire.
#40
Re: Fax machines
They exist. They don't tie into a pharmacy network though, they tie in to an e-prescription service. I'm not familiar with the veterinary side of it but I know that Surescripts, which is the giant network in the US, does tie into veterinary software.
#41
Re: Fax machines
MrKen didn't seem to notice that you said chocolate teapot.
#42
Re: Fax machines
I totally did see the chocolate part, hence saying "I get the point". It's just I normally hear making tea in a chocolate tea pot, not boiling. it's just I had this image of a tea pot melted all over the range, before the water got anywhere near boiling.
#45
Re: Fax machines
This was my original point - LEGALLY secure. The fact that, in practice, there are many reasons a fax is not secure just goes to show how regulations are often out-of-step with current technology. And yes, email can be quite unsecure unless you use a system like Zixmail. The fact that you CAN make 'ordinary' email secure doesn't really matter; on the receiving end, if you can't enforce secure delivery to yourself (as a medical practice) then you are opening yourself up to liability. In Healthcare IT, it's as much about compliance as it is about 'actual security', sadly.