Is Your Healthcare Data Vulnerable to Hacks?

Is healthcare information the next major target for hackers? A year-long investigation by the Washington Post asserts that online healthcare data is susceptible to hacks, especially considering the increasing number of ways patients and doctors can access health information these days.

?I have never seen an industry with more gaping security holes,? Avi Rubin, a computer scientist and technical director of the Information Security Institute at Johns Hopkins University, told the The Post. ?If our financial industry regarded security the way the health-care sector does, I would stuff my cash in a mattress under my bed.?

Mobile technology, including video conferencing and apps, have helped to spread healthcare to rural communities and allow consumers to be proactive in monitoring their own health. The downside of this, according to research by The Post, is that hackers might easily be able to access this data for identity theft and disruptive attack purposes.

Other groups and organizations have known about the vulnerabilities in healthcare information systems for some time. In May, the Department of Homeland Security issued a warning reminding consumers that although mobile devices make accessing healthcare information more convenient, it also leaves users vulnerable to data breaches. And in 2007, The Post reports, the eHealth Vulnerability Reporting Program, a group that included senior healthcare officials, concluded that ?commercial EHR systems are vulnerable to exploitation given existing industry practices? and that the ?skill level required to exploit is low.?

Perhaps the lack of security is because compared to government, military and major corporations, the healthcare sector's online security hasn't been compromised often enough to make it a huge priority. Although, the healthcare sector hasn't been without security breaches.

According to GovernmentHealthIT the largest healthcare security breach of 2012 happened to the Utah Department of Health where 780,000 patient's personal information was hacked.

Are you concerned with the security of your personal health data? Tell us in the comments.

Image via iStockphoto, sjlocke

Source: http://mashable.com/2012/12/27/healthcare-data-vulnerable-to-hacks/

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