McAfee Alleged to Hand Subscriber Credit Cards to Third Party

April 8, 2010

A Federal class action suit filed by Rosen, Bien & Galvin, out of San Francisco alleges that McAfee uses deceptive techniques to “trick” users into handing their credit card information to a third party partner.

After entering the information, previously undisclosed charges charges appear on the user’s credit bill.  The suit alleges that when the user attempts to contact the third party to cancel the “service” they receive a recording that states it “does not offer cancellation or subscription services”.

The complaint also states that upon contacting McAfee the users are told that the AV software company cannot do anything about the charge.

Add this one to the “One More Reason McAfee Sucks” category, and file under “Dirt Rat Bastards”.

CourtNews Link:

Class Claims McAfee Pulled A Fast One

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DEA Proposes Allowing Electronic Prescriptions for Narcotics

April 6, 2010

On March 31 the DEA published a proposal to allow electronic prescriptions for narcotics (Docket No. DEA-218I).

The effective date for this is June 1, 2010 pending congressional review.  The RFC section gives insight into how they plan to implement (bold text added by yours truly):  Identity proofing, access control, authentication, biometric subsystems and testing of those subsystems, internal audit trails for electronic prescription applications, and third-party auditors and certification organizations.

It looks like there will be a requirement to be “certified” to perform electronic fill of narcotic prescriptions, but is that really enough (think Heartland)?

There are several really interesting tidbits that can be derived from this document that I did not realize:

1. “The responsibility for the proper prescribing and dispensing of controlled substances is upon the prescribing practitioner, but a corresponding responsibility rests with the pharmacist who fills the prescription.” – This makes sense, but also indicates that they will likely follow a path where the responsible parties determine the means by which they accomplish an outline of requirements surrounding security related to narcotics prescription.  Ask yourself this:  Did HIPAA end internal patient record theft?

2. “[M]ost electronic prescriptions are routed from the electronic prescription or EHR application through intermediaries, at least one of which determines whether the prescription file needs to be converted from one software version to another so that the receiving pharmacy application can correctly import the data. There are generally three to five intermediaries that route prescriptions between practitioners and pharmacies.” – This points to the lack of standards, potential for screw ups and also multiple points of potential abuse.

I am still reviewing the text document (it is long) but I am also preparing and educating myself in this area – I feel some cases coming.

Original Federal Register Text:

FR Doc 2010-6687

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