Michael Johnson

Dementia and Alzheimer’s are scary for both patients and caregivers. Right now, there is no cure. Scientists are trying to find ways of prolonging patient’s lives and delaying the onset of the disease. IT Technicians are finding ways to make lives better and caring for patients easier. Some remarkable work is doing things for these individuals that has never been seen or done before.

First, A Word About The Disease

According to Alzheimer’s International, nearly 44 million people worldwide have Alzheimer’s or related dementia. More than 5 million American’s are living with it, and Between 2017 and 2025 every state is expected to see at least a 14% rise in the prevalence of Alzheimer’s. Those statistics are startling, especially since Alzheimer’s disease is irreversible.

Accounting for around 70 perfect of dementia cases, Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common cause of dementia, a group of brain disorders that results in the loss of intellectual and social skills. These changes are severe enough to interfere with day-to-day life. It progressively destroys the brain and ruins memory and thinking skills, and eventually the ability to carry out the simplest tasks.

A Few Other Statistics

• In 2017, Alzheimer’s cost the United States $259 billion.
• By 2050, costs associated with dementia could be as much as $1.1 trillion.
• The global cost of Alzheimer’s and dementia is estimated to be $605 billion.
• Alzheimer’s is the 6th leading cause of death in the United States.
• Between 2017 and 2025 every state is expected to see at least a 14% rise in the prevalence of Alzheimer’s.
• By 2050, it’s estimated there will be as many as 16 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s.
• Every 66 seconds someone in the United States develops Alzheimer’s.
• 1 in 3 seniors dies with some form of dementia.

Technology at its Finest

Because of these sad stats and high numbers, IT experts have come up with some amazing devices that use modern technology to aid in the care of people suffering from memory problems. Here’s a look at a few of the latest innovations.

Clocks

Clocks precisely intended for those with Alzheimer’s and dementia can help ease the stress associated with day to day life. Someone who has dementia may confuse night and day so an easy to read clock can help them to better tell the time.

Medication Management

Medication management technology created high tech automated pill dispensers which beep and open to remind caregivers and those with dementia to take their medicine. Vibrating alarms on a watch have also been fashioned to remind when it’s time for a pill. This technology serves the busy caregiver well by helping them not to forget medication time as well.

Video Monitoring

Video monitoring technology supports both care recipient and caregiver, by allowing both people more freedom. The patient doesn’t feel watched constantly because loved one can spend a little time away, and loved ones get the comfort of being able to see their family even when they’re not in the same house.

GPS Location and Tracking Devices

People with Alzheimer’s or dementia may wander. Tracking devices can be worn by the person in some way and have alert systems that let a caregiver know if their loved one has left a certain area. This type of technology can also alert emergency personnel to aid in a quick recovery.

Picture Phones

Picture phones are specifically designed for people who cannot remember phone numbers. These phones have large numbers and are pre-programmable with frequently called phone numbers. Some of the phones come with clear buttons where photos can be placed so that the person can just push the button associated with the photos to call their loved one quickly.

Electrical Use Monitoring

This device monitors a patient’s use of electrical appliances. It plugs into a wall outlet or power strip and will alert caregivers if their commonly used appliances have not been turned on or off.

Wearable Cameras

Wearable cameras and augmented reality glasses could be the next big thing in helping patients. These devices can take hundreds of pictures every day from the user’s point of view logging their lives in this way.

A Village of Care

In Kitchener, Ontario, something wonderful is happening. Facilities have been designed to be less institutional-looking, friendlier and homier. “Schlegel Villages” is one of the first of its kind and is improving the quality of life for the people that live there.

One problem they deal with though is when at-risk seniors become confused and attempt to leave. According to Schlegel’s IT director, Chris Carde, “Some seniors with certain types of mental illness can remember the door-lock code to get out but can’t remember anything else. A confused senior wandering out into a southern Ontario winter can be a serious, even fatal, incident”.

Schlegel Villages is also implementing an e-health system to replace paper charts at its care facilities. Carde states, “Nurses would have to write down a patient’s vital signs, then enter them into a desktop computer some distance away. The new system, which will use iPads and iPad minis to enter health information directly into the database, is being greeted warmly by clinicians”.

Thinking Outside of the Box

A German senior center applied the idea of using fake bus stops to keep Alzheimer’s disease patients from wandering off. Because their short-term memory is not intact, but their long-term memory works fine, they know what the bus stop sign means, and they stop. It is a huge success in Germany, now they want to bring it to several clinics in North America.

A Final Word

Thanks to these researchers and IT innovators, the future is much brighter for patients with memory diseases and their families and care providers. This is just the beginning when it comes to making life easier. Information Technology has only just begun to scratch the surface of what can be done to help in the fight against dementia and Alzheimer’s.

17 Product Groups Named-Their Production Halted and Update Support Ended After Irrefutable Evidence Uncovered Flaw in Intel Chips.

The information about the Spectre attacks came to light back in January 2018. Intel and other technology firms and vendors were made aware of research findings by Paul Kocher from Spectreattack.com and Jann Horn from Google Project Zero.

Paul’s collaboration team regarding the chip flaw and the notorious Spectre Attacks were:

• Daniel Genkin (the University of Pennsylvania and University of Maryland)
• Mike Hamburg (Rambus)
• Moritz Lipp (Graz University of Technology)
• Yuval Yarom (University of Adelaide and Data61)

The research findings from Paul Kocher’s team and Jann Horn supported what the U.S. Department of Commerce’s agency, NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) found. At NIST’s, National Vulnerability Database website is the research published on January 4, 2018.

Take note of these excerpts, the indirect branch prediction and branch prediction in both announcements:

CVE-2017-5715

Current Description: “Systems with microprocessors utilizing speculative execution and indirect branch prediction may allow unauthorized disclosure of information to an attacker with local user access via a side-channel analysis.”

CVE-2017-5753

Current Description: “Systems with microprocessors utilizing speculative execution and branch prediction may allow unauthorized disclosure of information to an attacker with local user access via a side-channel analysis.”

After the findings arrived, on January 3, 2018, Intel responds to Paul and Jann’s security research findings with this disbelieving statement: “Intel believes these exploits do not have the potential to corrupt, modify or delete data.”

With the proof in front of them, Intel believed the research reports were flawed and incorrect. The idea of these acts caused by a “bug”, or a “flaw” was not possible. Their explanation was, “there are many types of computing devices, using different vendor’s operating systems and processors. All are at risk of being exploited.”

But Paul’s team exploited speculative execution and had solid proof.

They experimented on multiple x86 processor architectures. They used the Intel Ivy Bridge (i7-3630QM). The Intel Haswell (i7-4650U). The Intel Skylake (unspecified Xeon on Google Cloud) and finally an AMD Ryzen processor.

In every test, the team observed the Spectre vulnerability across all of these CPUs. Similar results on both 32- and 64-bit modes, and both Linux and Windows. Some ARM processors also support speculative execution, and the initial testing confirmed, ARM processors could not pass the test.

When they attacked using native code, they were able to read the entire victim’s memory address space, including the secrets stored within it, with ease.

When they attacked using Java code, they successfully read data from the address space of the browser process running it, with zero effort.

The research evidence was irrefutable.

Their results showed there was a flaw in Intel chips.

A day later, January 4, 2018, Intel issues updates to protect systems from security exploits. They released this statement: “Intel has developed and is rapidly issuing updates for all types of Intel-based computer systems — including personal computers and servers — that render those systems immune from both exploits (referred to as “Spectre” and “Meltdown”) reported by Google Project Zero.”

Three months later on April 2, 2018, Intel’s Microcode Revision Guidance is released and what’s inside exposed the truth. In this 19-page pdf document, you will find 17 product groups listed, (color-coded in red), productions halted, and update support has ended.

Looking through the guide, you will find the columns listed by Product Names, Public Name, CPUID, Platform ID, Production Status, Pre-Mitigation Production MCU, STOP deploying these MCU revs, and New Production MCU Rev.

The pages with the discontinued products are below:

• Page 4: Bloomfield and Bloomfield Xeon
• Page 7: Clarksfield
• Page 8: Gulftown and Harpertown Xeon CO & EO
• Page 11: Jasper Forest
• Page 12: Penryn/QC
• Page 15: SoFIA 3GR
• Page 16: Wolfdale CO, MO, EO & RO, Wolfdale Xeon CO & EO
• Page 17: Yorkfield & Yorkfield Xeon

When you review the columns, you will see one labeled STOP deploying these MCU revs. Intel’s definition for this column is as follows:

• Intel recommends discontinuing using these select versions of MCU that were previously released with mitigations for Variant 2 (Spectre) due to system stability issues.

Intel also states in their Microcode Revision Guidance Legend:

• “After a comprehensive investigation of the microarchitectures and microcode capabilities for these products, Intel has determined to not release”
• “Microcode updates for these products for one or more reasons including, but not limited to the following:”
• “Micro-architectural characteristics that preclude a practical implementation of features mitigating Variant 2 (CVE-2017-5715)”
• “Limited Commercially Available System Software support.”
• “Based on customer inputs, most of these products are implemented as “closed systems” and therefore are expected to have a lower likelihood of exposure to these vulnerabilities.”

As you can see, Intel’s exhaustive investigation could not discredit Paul, Jann and NIST’s research and proof. Intel decided, due to microarchitectures and microcode capabilities, for the specific products listed, not to move forward and release microcode updates for these products.

If you own a PC, Mac, or Cell phone, a Spectre attack can affect your device. If you use Cloud Services, your provider’s infrastructure may be vulnerable to a Spectre attack and theft of customer’s data. If your device uses any of Intel’s older microprocessors, you may be shopping around for a new machine.