Despite advances in Health IT. cybersecurity health data provides a rich source of data for sale on the dark web.
Imagine sitting in an exam room at a hospital, waiting to find out the result of an important test, but your doctor can’t access it because the electronic medical records system has been corrupted with malware. It’s a nightmarish scenario.
Imagine this scenario
Optum Medical Group in New York hit by cyberattack. Crystal Run Healthcare in Middletown, N.Y., told patients to expect longer wait times than usual amid a system interruption affecting some services, according to the medical group's website.
"We are working diligently to resolve these issues," the medical group wrote on its website Nov. 3. The announcement was still on the website on Nov. 6 and recommended patients call 911 with an emergency.
Norton Healthcare still feeling the effects of cyber events. In May, hackers targeting Louisville, Ky.-based Norton Healthcare posted personal health information on the dark web; local news outlet WDRB reported on Nov. 6 that the health system is still dealing with the fallout. The hacking group BlackCat claimed responsibility for the event and included Social Security numbers, birth dates, credit card numbers, and patients' medical history. A Norton employee told the local news outlet that several credit cards had been fraudulently opened in her name. Employees said that while internal systems are functioning, there has been some backlog.
Data breach affects 1.2 million patients at Illinois system. Millions of patients at Chicago-based Cook County Health could have had their protected health information stolen as the health system's former medical transportation services firm, Perry Johnson & Associates, suffered a data breach, CBS News reported Nov. 3. Upon learning of this, Cook County Health ended its contract with the company and ceased data sharing. On Oct. 9, Perry Johnson & Associates told Cook County Health that 1.2 million of its patients had protected health information compromised as a result of the incident. The following patient information may have been exposed in the breach — names, birthdates, addresses, medical record numbers, encounter numbers, medical details, and dates and times of service. Additionally, the records of approximately 2,600 patients may have included Social Security numbers.
Advocate Aurora pixel settlement. People who used the health systems' websites, LiveWell app, or MyChart patient portal between Oct. 24, 2017, and Oct. 22, 2022, may be able to claim up to $50 each, according to the settlement website. The deadline to apply is Jan. 18. The health systems agreed to the settlement in August as part of a class-action lawsuit claiming those digital tools were embedded with "pixels," or consumer-behavior trackers, that sent their personal and medical information to third-party tech companies. The health system, dually headquartered in Downers Grove, Ill., and Milwaukee, said it implemented the tracking tools to better understand patient behaviors but that the data may have been sent to Google or Facebook parent company Meta.
Pixels and third-party tracking tools can be used to thwart cyber-security safeguards.
No comments:
Post a Comment