It turns out that anyone with basic computing skills and an internet connection can access millions of private medical images and data—such as MRIs, X-rays, and CT scans—as well as a buffet of valuable private info, according to a disturbing report from ProPublica.
The gist is that as the medical community moved from analog to digital methods of sharing test results, security practices lagged behind. Unlike data breaches in other industries, where hackers make use of flaws in a company’s security practices, many digital medical records systems don’t even require passwords. What that means is you don’t even need fancy hacker software to peep at millions of medical test results. All you need is to know where to look, and an internet browser.
Continue reading about the research ProPublica did to back up these disturbing facts.