Beijing considered Google’s action as “unacceptable” for blaming China for the hacking attacks that it suffered. This is the second time that Google was attacked; the first one also pointed to China as the origin of the perpetrator. Google said that there was a concerted Chinese campaign to capture the personal email accounts of some senior government officials of the U.S. and Chinese activists. According to the search giant, both the first and the second attacks were traced to have originated in Jinan, China.

In an explanation, Google said that the concerted attack used targeted emails that were sent to hundreds of recipients. The truth is, the emails led to a fake log in page not created by Google, but by some unscrupulous individuals. Because these emails appeared to have been sent by a known sender, the recipients were willing to give their passwords.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, in a news briefing, said that blaming the crime on China is improper. He further mentioned that China is also a victim of hacking, which is an international problem. For several times, China announced that it does not condone hacking. It has admitted, though that hacking remains a popular hobby in the country. However, it is not supported by any means by any public agency or entity.

The goal to put up a foolproof system of safekeeping medical records was proven difficult. This was demonstrated by recent incidents of breaches. The stealing of a large number of personal medical records was done while in the custody of a record management company. In March of this year, the owners of nearly two million personal records were informed that their files could not be located. These breaches against health records pose danger to the privacy of hundreds of millions of people.

The patients’ medical records should not be taken for granted so as to preserve their privacy. The confidentiality of the owners of these documents that contain sensitive personal information is at stake. It is time to lay down the consequences of breaches to those who are involved. For sheer negligence, a general hospital in the U.S. was fined $1 million. Another case of negligence is the loss of paper records of 192 employees. These were left on a subway train by another employee.

One state representative said that health care industries should strive for more vigilance in record keeping. An examination of the status of security measures at health care facilities across the U.S. was conducted by the HHS. It was found that the way these records are kept is susceptible to intrusion. A glaring truth was revealed in the investigations done at seven large hospitals in different states. Unsecured computers that can be easily accessed by unauthorized users were used to store unencrypted personal data of patients.