...SurMD takes a fresh and counter-intuitive look over at HITECH Answers that posits that DIY for organizations is not the way to go. Migrating your data to third-party cloud storage partners experienced in ultra-secure storage is a far better choice, as long as it is encrypted start-to-finish and in a failproof way that she describes so that even a non-IT professional can understand. What’s behind the dramatic rise in medical identity theft? (Fortune). Also an organization called the Medical Identity Fraud Alliance has published a free report, The Growing Threat of Medical Identity Fraud: A Call to Action (download here).... Continue Reading
Search Results for identity theft
Roundup: data breaches ’round the world
Following on our review of recent articles on why medical identity theft is so attractive, here’s our review of data breaches in the news, including a new (to this Editor) report from Europe. It’s not Europe, blame the UK! That is one of the surprising findings of a meta-review of all types of data breaches released earlier this month by the Central European University’s Center for Media, Data and Society (CMDS). While not specific to healthcare, it is the first study this Editor has seen on EU data breaches and is useful for general trends. 229 verified incidents were analyzed... Continue Reading
CHS data breach estimated price tag: $150 million
Huge price tag, is the solution more ‘white hat hacker/crackers’, get a clue, C-Suite and why China leads in hacking (important updates!) Dan Munro in Forbes got out his calculator and estimated that the cost to Community Health Services, based on prior incidents, may be as high as $150 million. He bases it on recent poster children Columbia-NY Presbyterian and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. The message to healthcare business executives: pay now–by beefing up HIT and data security–or pay later in rush remediation of data breaches like identity theft protection, Office of Civil Rights-HHS fines, potential insurance fraud, legal charges... Continue Reading
The drip of data breaches now a flood: 4.5 million records hacked–update
...dates, telephone numbers and Social Security numbers. The company owns, operates or leases 206 hospitals in 29 states, and management has offered affected patients identity theft protection programs. The Modern Healthcare report quotes Michael McMillan of CynergisTek on increasing hacks aimed at healthcare institutions. Hospitals are “going to become a bigger and bigger target as the hacking community figures out it’s easier to hack a hospital than it is to hack a bank and you get the same information,” McMillan said. “I’m not sure healthcare is listening yet.” Also: iHealthBeat, Chicago Tribune, FierceHealthIT. Now up on the always handy Privacy... Continue Reading
Will bicycles be another sector to leave health behind?
...term “Connected Bike” in 2012. Fitness, navigation, anti-theft, safety and even ‘intelligent rear wheels’ are adding to the glamour. Surprising too are the statistics quoted by Beecham on bicycle sales in Europe (19.7m/year), as well as the market for Electric Power-Assisted Cycles (EPACs) which is also growing steadily in Europe – in 2012, 854,000 EPACs were sold in Europe, at a 19.3% growth rate vs 2011. Many years back we had eBanking, eCommerce, eGovernment and eTicketing, as well as eHealth – since then customers & suppliers alike have embraced these technologies to transform cost, availability & quality such that they... Continue Reading
One week to go to the first (free to attend) DHACA-Day July 11th
...to getting off to a good start will be the optimum selection and scoping of SIGs, and so during DHACA-Day we want firstly to hear from members, and then collectively to propose and define the priority SIGs from the key issues emerging. To begin the process, the morning will comprise a range of motivational speakers talking on key topics such as integrated care, citizen identity, technology enabling care services and future challenges. The event is being held in the DTG offices very close to Vauxhall tube station and is free to attend – sign up here for a great day!... Continue Reading
Risky hospital business: happy device hacking, insider data breaches
...The ‘Ambulance Chaser’ Data Breach: What better way for lawyers and shady outpatient clinics to get accident patients fresh from the ER (ED), than to have someone on the inside feeding them patient information? At New York’s Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, two registrars accessed the records of 250 patients with the usual secure data plus details on their injuries and medical treatment. Many were later contacted by said lawyers and clinics. The Queens District Attorney is now investigating whether this strange coincidence is actually cause-and-effect–whether the two defendants sold the patient information. HealthcareInfoSecurity Privacy experts concede that ‘insider’ theft–and this... Continue Reading
PHI data: 361,000 examples that it’s more insecure than ever
We’ve been fairly consistent in our coverage of data breaches, including the regrettable fact that more digital data stored out there on EHRs and devices with low security means Happy Hacking (or Stealing) for Fun and Profit. [TTA 2 Apr] Here’s additional proof, including the first incident this Editor has seen of email phishing: California, there they go: A theft of eight computers from Sutherland Healthcare Solutions’ medical billing and collections office compromised 338,700 patients’ personal health information (PHI), including SSIs. Sutherland provides services to the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services and Department of Public Health. Being California,... Continue Reading
US health data breaches hit record; Healthcare.gov backdoored?
Security firm Redspin reports a total of 7.1 million affected records in 2013, up from 3 million in 2012. The five largest breaches accounted for 85 percent of the total: Advocate Health, Horizon BCBSNJ, AHMC Healthcare, Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth and Indiana Family & Social Services Administration. Hardware theft of unencrypted devices accounted for the first three; Texas Health was perhaps the most unique because it disposed of over 277,000 microfiche patient records in a city park, making it the winner of last May’s ‘It’s Just Mulch’ award in ‘The exploding black market in healthcare data’. Not... Continue Reading
mHealth Summit 2013: Verizon’s role in the HIT ecosystem
...have all the hospitals, insurance companies accelerate the transformation in health IT, what piece can we play beyond the network? We’re obviously pretty good at the network now, but what can we do beyond that?” One of the first things that Verizon did was put what Dr. Tippett calls “HIPAA readiness” into their data centers. They sign BAAs (Business Associate Agreements) for cloud computing or co-location. He says they were early in doing that just to “get people to use less expensive faster routes to compute.” Verizon also has an identity ecosystem that makes it easier to log into databases.... Continue Reading
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