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Map It. Zap It. Covid-19 and Rural America #GoodCovidDomains

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This post may seem off-topic for my regular cybercrime and cyber security readers, but these are unusual times. Regular readers know that part of what my team at the UAB Computer Forensics Research Lab has been working on is looking for scams and fraud related to Covid-19 / CoronaVirus.  Part of that process has been watching for malicious or scammy emails (see “CAUCE Spamfighters Rally Aainst Corona Health Fraud Affiliate Programs“) and part has been monitoring the creation of new domain names which MIGHT be used for fraud or scams ( see “Covid-19 / CoronaVirus Domains: A looming threat?“) In that latter article, I encouraged people to share #GoodCovidDomains or #BadCovidDomains that they found.

Today I wanted to highlight a #GoodCovidDomain that is used by a project launched by some amazing UAB researchers.

HelpBeatCovid19.org  :: MAP IT.  ZAP IT.

The project asks people to complete a simple survey to determine if they have COVID-19 symptoms.  Then it maps their responses to help identify areas where there may be an emerging cluster of COVID-19.

Dr. Sue Feldman directs the Health Informatics program at UAB, and is a fantastic leader in her space.  She’s been an R.N. for 30 years in some of the coolest and most high pressure environments in the US (I was joking with her once about how silly television shows were where doctors and nurses fly out in helicopters to accident scenes … she said “no, that’s what I used to do in Los Angeles!), and she has PhDs in both Information Technology and Education!  We’ve worked together on some of her creative projects, such as teaching a cyber security tabletop exercise for future health care administrators as part of one of her classes.

Dr. Sarah Parcak is one of UAB’s most famous scientists, best known as “the Space Archaeologist” for her ground-breaking work in using satellite imagery to uncover buried remnants of ancient civilizations.  After being featured on BBC specials and winning the TED Prize and publishing an award-winning science book “Archaeology from Space” I was shocked to hear her say of this Covid-19 project “Its the coolest and most important thing I’ve ever done!” She brings her expertise in all things geo-spatial and Geographic Information Systems to a new focus area with this project. (@IndyFromSpace)

Their colleague Mohanraj Thirumalai worked for more than a decade as the Senior Web Developer at University of Illinois Chicago before getting a PhD in Management and Information Systems and moving to Alabama to be the Director of ICT at UAB/Lakeshore Research.  He’s also an Assistant Professor in the School of Health Professions.

In a state like mine, Alabama, we have a great disparity in ease-of-access to medical care and as a citizen, I am concerned about whether that may be allowing Covid-19 to spread without detection in rural parts of our state.  When I look at this map, I ask myself “does this say that rural counties have a form or natural social distancing?  Or does this say that they are entirely lacking in basic medical infrastructure and testing capability?”

I used the Alabama Department of Public Health’s data to see what testing and infection rates looked like on a county-by-county basis in Alabama. In our ten most populous counties, we have 965 cases with 5,658 people tested (as of 10PM 3APR2020).

 In our thirty smallest counties, we have 133 cases with 858 people tested. Population-wise that isn’t as bad as it sounds. The combined population of our ten largest counties is 2.6 million people, while the thirty smallest counties have 534,000 people.

But it does point to scarcity of testing. Of those thirty smallest counties, most have had less than fifty people tested IN THE WHOLE COUNTY. (Bibb = 76, very likely in the prison there! Marion = 60, and Marengo = 65.) Ten counties have had LESS THAN TWENTY PEOPLE tested in their county.

Encourage your friends to go to HELPBEATCOVID19.org and report “how they are feeling” – whether sick or healthy! ESPECIALLY if you have contacts in our more rural parts of our state.

The project actually hopes to gather data from across the SouthEast, so despite my focus on Alabama, please do encourage anyone in “the SouthEast” to share information about this project with their friends.

As more data is gathered, UAB and their partners will be able to provide a more targeted response to Covid-19 in Alabama and across the SouthEast … looking forward to seeing what emerges as we go from 10,000 participants to 100,000, to 200,000, to a million!

County statistics as of 03APR2020

County Population Infected Tested Dead % Infected % tested
Jefferson 658327 356 1920 .0541% .2916%
Mobile 413590 103 652 5 .0249% .1576%
Madison 342762 122 588 1 .0356% .1715%
Montgomery 229293 61 448 1 .0266% .1954%
Shelby 200983 112 535 4 .0557% .2662%
Tuscaloosa 198694 41 556 .0206% .2798%
Baldwin 190675 28 430 1 .0147% .2255%
Lee 147808 99 190 3 .067% .1285%
Morgan 120157 24 224 .02% .1864%
Calhoun 117253 19 115 .0162% .0981%
Etowah 104311 21 133 2 .0201% .1275%
Houston 103298 12 118 1 .0116% .1142%
Marshall 94413 17 134 .018% .1419%
Lauderdale 92682 14 271 2 .0151% .2924%
Limestone 87384 30 348 .0343% .3982%
St. Clair 85167 23 134 .027% .1573%
Talladega 81666 12 154 .0147% .1886%
Elmore 80417 19 284 .0236% .3532%
Cullman 80409 15 112 1 .0187% .1393%
DeKalb 70977 10 109 .0141% .1536%
Walker 66169 48 133 .0725% .201%
Blount 57807 9 48 .0156% .083%
Russell 57721 4 32 .0069% .0554%
Autauga 55265 12 102 .0217% .1846%
Colbert 54424 5 133 .0092% .2444%
Jackson 53048 12 90 1 .0226% .1697%
Coffee 51276 6 54 .0117% .1053%
Dale 50348 1 51 .002% .1013%
Chilton 43800 15 83 .0342% .1895%
Dallas 42692 7 44 .0164% .1031%
Tallapoosa 41157 20 46 1 .0486% .1118%
Escambia 38070 2 50 .0053% .1313%
Covington 37856 4 44 .0106% .1162%
Chambers 34074 80 82 5 .2348% .2407%
Lawrence 33777 4 91 .0118% .2694%
Pike 33113 10 110 .0302% .3322%
Franklin 31685 5 95 .0158% .2998%
Marion 30538 16 60 2 .0524% .1965%
Barbour 27232 1 21 .0037% .0771%
Geneva 26969 .% .%
Cherokee 26056 5 44 .0192% .1689%
Clarke 25220 3 44 .0119% .1745%
Winston 24153 3 39 .0124% .1615%
Randolph 22720 10 25 1 .044% .11%
Bibb 22662 4 76 .0177% .3354%
Monroe 22629 5 36 .0221% .1591%
Marengo 20389 8 65 .0392% .3188%
Butler 20384 1 38 .0049% .1864%
Macon 20383 5 27 .0245% .1325%
Pickens 19331 11 29 .0569% .15%
Henry 17285 2 20 .0116% .1157%
Washington 17115 5 19 1 .0292% .111%
Fayette 17005 1 38 .0059% .2235%
Hale 15420 3 23 .0195% .1492%
Cleburne 14885 7 19 .047% .1276%
Lamar 14265 1 26 .007% .1823%
Crenshaw 13981 1 46 .0072% .329%
Choctaw 13585 4 15 .0294% .1104%
Clay 13458 8 34 .0594% .2526%
Sumter 13407 7 19 .0522% .1417%
Conecuh 13009 1 21 .0077% .1614%
Wilcox 11406 6 20 .0526% .1753%
Coosa 11000 6 17 .0545% .1545%
Lowndes 10846 2 15 .0184% .1383%
Bullock 10605 2 10 .0189% .0943%
Perry 10194 .% .%
Greene 8848 5 12 .0565% .1356%
.% .%
TOTALS 4817528 1515 9601 32 .0314% .1993%

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from CyberCrime & Doing Time authored by Gary Warner, UAB. Read the original post at: http://garwarner.blogspot.com/2020/04/map-it-zap-it-covid-19-and-rural.html

Source: https://securityboulevard.com/2020/04/map-it-zap-it-covid-19-and-rural-america-goodcoviddomains/

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