Your medical record is worth more to hackers than your credit card

[eridani]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/24/us-cybersecurity-hospitals-idUSKCN0HJ21I20140924?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

Security experts say cyber criminals are increasingly targeting the $3 trillion U.S. healthcare industry, which has many companies still reliant on aging computer systems that do not use the latest security features."As attackers discover new methods to make money, the healthcare industry is becoming a much riper target because of the ability to sell large batches of personal data for profit," said Dave Kennedy, an expert on healthcare security and CEO of TrustedSEC LLC.

"Hospitals have low security, so it's relatively easy for these hackers to get a large amount of personal data for medical fraud."Interviews with nearly a dozen healthcare executives, cybersecurity investigators and fraud experts provide a detailed account of the underground market for stolen patient data.

The data for sale includes names, birth dates, policy numbers, diagnosis codes and billing information. Fraudsters use this data to create fake IDs to buy medical equipment or drugs that can be resold, or they combine a patient number with a false provider number and file made-up claims with insurers, according to experts who have investigated cyber attacks on healthcare organizations.

Medical identity theft is often not immediately identified by a patient or their provider, giving criminals years to milk such credentials. That makes medical data more valuable than credit cards, which tend to be quickly canceled by banks once fraud is detected.

[Enthusiast]

1. This is some scary shit.

[eridani]

4. Yes--and way underreported n/t

[Sunlei]

2. Humana made providing my medical info to '3rd parties' the 'default' setting on my account.

Yes they sent a letter and then had to call/ log on to account to change the settings to op out.

Was to late, got several cold calls and bunches of emails from all kinds of businesses.

[liberalla]

3. Kick