Has your health info been stolen?
When you go to the doctor, you give them a lot of information: name, date of birth, weight and medical conditions. You share your habits (drinker? smoker?), your current medications and whether you plan to become pregnant. You give away your address, payment information and health insurance provider.
All that information has to go somewhere. In previous eras, handwritten records might have been kept at your doctor's office. But the advent of the internet brought these files into massive storage units that health care systems are tasked with protecting, maintaining and storing. That's a really, really expensive undertaking, so sometimes health care systems outsource that work to third-party organizations.
So what happens when that third-party organization is attacked by cybercriminals?
👋 Nicole Fallert here and welcome to Your Week, our newsletter exclusively for Paste BN subscribers (that's you!). This week, we talk with Paste BN data reporter Cecilia Garzella about her work behind Paste BN's exclusive database of health care breaches.
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The bad guys are getting good at this
It might feel out of your control where your health data goes. Cecilia Garzella certainly noticed how complex health care storage must be to navigate for our readers, so she took matters into her reporter's hands. She interviewed experts and analyzed extensive Department of Health and Human Services data to figure out if health data was breached and which systems were victims.
Find out if your health care data has been breached in this searchable Paste BN database.
"These attacks are becoming more common," Garzella said. Experts said that during the pandemic, a push to remote operations directed health care information to cloud-based technology. This wasn't exclusive to health care, but it marked a significant shift in the industry.
Garzella's efforts interviewing experts about the breaches not only debunked her own assumptions about why the hacks were happening but also demonstrated that hackers are getting really good at their jobs.
"The bad guys have figured it out. They have learned to target the one third-party vendor rather than going after hospitals individually," Garzella said. "It's a smart strategy, but its a concerning one because now we have millions of people at risk of identity theft or insurance fraud."
Stolen, exposed and getting worse: 40 million Americans' health data is stolen or exposed each year.
Part of Paste BN's mission is to democratize open data for our readers. If you use our searchable database and find your medical provider has had a breach, Garzella says, don't panic. Her advice is to read our story about what you should do, including knowing whether to file a police report.
She also recommends searching for medical providers you may have used a few years ago. It's likely old medical providers still have your information on file.
"I hope those steps help people," Garzella said, highlighting how easy it is to feel lost in the mass of information available. If she didn't have Paste BN's database, she said, "I can't imagine what you would do in that situation."
Thank you
This database has provided valuable information to me and truly represents Paste BN's dedication to accountability. Thank you for supporting our journalism with your subscription. Our work wouldn't be possible without you.
Best wishes,
Nicole Fallert