Month: November 2017

Hulu

The so-called golden age of TV has brought us an embarrassment of riches, which means you're just as likely to miss a gem as you are to see 5,000 versions of the same dumb premise. Runaways, which debuted its first three episodes on Hulu last week, is one of those hidden gems you'll want to find. Based on a beloved comic by Brian K. Vaughan (Saga and Y: The Last Man), it's the story of six teens who discover their parents are part of a secret supervillain organization called Pride. The series takes this premise in fascinating new directions and delivers a surprisingly nuanced exploration of adolescent rebellion as a struggle against adult corruption.

Light spoilers ahead.

Enlarge (credit: Media for Medical/UIG via Getty Images)

A New Hampshire state judge has dismissed a case brought by an elderly doctor who recently gave up her medical license following a handful of allegations against her.

Among other accusations, Dr. Anna Konopka, 84, has refused to use a computer and participate in the state's new law for an online opioid monitoring program.

"The Court has admiration for Dr. Konopka's devotion to her patients," Merrimack County Superior Court Judge John Kissinger wrote in his Monday order to dismiss the case, according to New Hampshire Public Radio.

Enlarge / Various homeopathic remedies. (credit: Wikidudeman )

More than 60 percent of NIH-supported comprehensive cancer centers in the US include “integrative medicine” in their services and patient information. And in recent years, the centers’ inclusion of dubious treatments has only grown, according to a new article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute Monographs.

For instance, the number of centers providing patients with information on “healing touch”—a type of “energy medicine”—increased nearly 30 percent between 2009 and 2016. Cancer patients at 26 of the 45 government-designated comprehensive centers around the country can now learn about that hocus-pocus along with actual cancer therapies. Likewise, inclusion of Ayurveda—a pseudoscience involving herbal, mineral, and metal treatments—increased by 10 percent in the same timeframe. Now, 18 of 45 cancer centers supported by the National Cancer Institute provide patients with information on that sorcery.

While the data may alarm evidence-based physicians and health experts, an accompanying article on the semantics of “integrative medicine” may be of more concern. In it, advocates of “integrative medicine” try to define what “integrative medicine” is, exactly. But rather than a clear definition, they create a vague and broad one that includes “mind and body practices.” It involves everything from the “medicalized” components of a healthy lifestyle (such as simple exercise) to what can charitably be described as magic.

(credit: Renato Ganoza)

Three men who worked for an Internet security firm in China have been indicted on federal charges for hacking into at least three multinational corporations. The malware they used has been tied to the Chinese government.

Wu Yingzhuo, Dong Hao, and Xia Lei face federal charges that they conspired to steal hundreds of gigabytes of data belonging to Siemens AG, Moody’s Analytics, and the GPS technology company Trimble. The indictment, which was filed in September and unsealed on Monday, said the trio used spear phishing e-mails with malicious attachments or links to infect targeted end users. The defendants used customized tools collectively known as the UPS Backdoor Malware to gain and maintain unauthorized access to the targeted companies' networks.

Wu and Dong are founding members and equity shareholders of Guangzhou Bo Yu Information Technology Company. Xia is an employee of the company.

Enlarge / Former First Lady Michelle Obama delivers remarks during a FAFSA workshop in 2014. Identity theft was not the kind of "getting schooled" the First Lady had in mind. (credit: Official White House Photo by Amanda Lucidon)

The arrival of the holidays heralds another season soon to arrive: the tax season and, with it, the tax-return fraud season. And while the Internal Revenue Service has made some moves toward stanching the flow of fraudulent tax returns filed by cyber-criminals, another government agency is offering up fresh fuel to fraudsters' efforts: the US Department of Education.

On November 24, security reporter Brian Krebs revealed how the agency's site for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) not only allows students to apply for financial assistance, but it also allows anyone with a student's name, Social Security number, and date of birth to access all of the information they've entered in their application—and even some they may not have. And that data includes tax data that could be used to submit fraudulent electronic tax returns, including adjusted gross income (AGI) from the previous tax cycle.

Back in March, the Education Department and the IRS shut down a system called the Data Retrieval Tool that allowed FAFSA applicants to automatically populate fields in their applications from their IRS tax records. The reason: more than 100,000 taxpayers may have had their information fraudulently retrieved through the FAFSA application system. A similar concern arose two years ago over a federal student loan application system that also tapped into IRS data and over an IRS PIN tool meant to allow taxpayers to protect their electronic filing.