Ryan’s Journal: Thoughts About Tanium
by Ryan PewA few days ago Miki sent me an article about Tanium giving prospective customers a look into their client hospital’s live network, but without permission or protecting the identity of the hospital completely.
I wrote her back today as follows.
I had not seen this on my own, but I have been reading about the company for a few days now.
Coming from the medtech industry and security specifically I will say this.
The fact that he and his company used live hospital data without their consent will be a deathblow to them.
Hospitals take this very seriously because they are the ones who are held responsible by the Office for Civil Rights under Health and Human Services.
The hospital will be shown to have a vulnerability and will be forced to pay fines, lose out on government funds and potentially face sanctions.
As a result the rest of the healthcare industry will treat Tanium like a pariah because they will not want to face repercussions.
Regardless of the industry it’s shocking to see how folks think it’s ok to manipulate or abuse customer relationships for their own profit, it always ends badly.
Miki responded.
Sadly, I think they will find a way to smooth it over. Google, Facebook, etc sell customer data all the time. It’s how so many make their money and no one seems to care.
I know HIPPA is supposed to prevent this stuff, but I’m sure companies are getting around that, too, they just haven’t been caught, yet.
That’s the key, not being caught.
Every company that is caught, or just challenged, cries that they take their customer’s privacy seriously or that that’s not what their culture stands for, etc.
But only when they are caught.
I sincerely hope you are correct and that Tanium takes a major blow and, more importantly, that the CEO is forced out, but I’m not holding my breath. I guess I’ve finally gotten pretty cynical about this stuff.
So now I’m trying to decide if Miki’s cynicism is warranted or if I’m right and the publicized results of Tanium’s actions will have the effect they should.
I’ll keep you informed as there are more developments.
Image credit: Wikipedia