Geithner Says U.S. to Start Lending Small-Business Capital Soon

A look at the week of June 27 in public advocacy for the IT channel: This week, small medical practices adopting health IT systems are reporting that the lack of a standard code and software makes communicating between systems a challenge.  The Department of Homeland Security plans to release guidelines for organizations to avoid the most common types of cyberattacks.  Timothy F. Geithner, U.S. Treasury Secretary, told members of the House Small Business Committee that the Treasury will begin distributing money from the Small Business Lending Fund soon.


Push For Digital Records Pains Doctors — Small medical practices trying to take advantage of federal subsidies for electronic medical records are facing discouraging returns on investment.   With no standard code or software, critics say the plan left out a means of ensuring that the emerging patchwork of proprietary software systems will be able to talk to one another. On top of that, the very act of digitizing millions of patient histories represents a technological leap for the legions of doctors who remain attached to paper record-keeping, says Marketwatch.


U.S. To Provide Guidelines To Bolster Computer Security — The Department of Homeland Security plans to unveil a new system of guidance intended to help make the software behind many services — be they websites or power grids — less susceptible to hacking. The system includes an updated list of the top 25 programming errors that enable today’s most serious hacks. To help make the list more useful, it adds new tools to help software programmers eliminate the most dangerous types of mistakes and enable organizations to demand and buy more secure products, reports the New York Times.


Geithner Says U.S. to Start Lending Small-Business Capital Soon — U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said that his department has received applications for $11.6 billion from its Small Business Lending Fund and plans to start distributing the funds soon. The $30 billion small-business lending program was set up in September by Congress and the administration of President Obama to provide low-interest capital injections to community banks that increase their lending to small businesses. According to Bloomberg, lawmakers have criticized the administration for the speed of the small-business lending fund and other assistance programs.