Bison Bud

Wow, I just opened my 3rd notification letter of a health care data breech in the last two weeks! Since all medical records went digital, my data has been breeched several other times as well, but three different breeches in this short of time really makes me wonder what the heck is going on! So far, I've had no personal problems with identity theft or credit fraud, etc. However, I sure feel like the odds are catching up with me with this kind of activity.

I am already a member of Experion's Credit Monitoring program and two of the last 3 notices also offered this same service at no cost to me. Better than nothing I guess, but I sure wish my medical records were still sitting in some doctor's office file cabinet rather than exposed to the internet and cloud storage. Anyone else having multiple breeches lately and is there anything that can be done to better protect this data?

JRiepe Loc: Southern Illinois

I put a freeze on with all three credit bureaus. No one can access my credit info unless I take the freeze off. Of course this has nothing to do with health info.

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

I have been thru several - but back when I was a government contractor (US government and corporate hacks), none yet since retiring, at least not that I know of). The issues resulted in free black web and data/credit monitoring for a few years. No harm to us so far. I worry too! I did put a lock on all 3 credit reports. About all you can do is stay vigilant, and lock down the data as best you can. If something seems amiss, check it out pronto. Limit who gets the data whenever you can.

Mark Sturtevant Loc: Grand Blanc, MI

And your own passwords to your bank account and other sensitive accounts should not be the same password.
And a common target for 'them', once they get the pertinent info on you, is to get your tax return if there is one.
There is a way to secure that too, but I've forgotten what we did to do that since its been many years since that excitement happened.

pendennis

Record vulnerability is a fact when they're digitized. While health care companies spend millions by a relatively low number of firms, there are millions of hackers out there trying break into all types of systems either for profit or recreation (bragging rights). Do the math; the numbers are stacked in favor of the hackers. Add renegade countries like Communist China, Nigeria, North Korea, Iran, etc., and it's a virtual war.

I retired from IT at one of the largest companies in the world, in 2007. At that time we were getting about five million hack attempts per month, though none had been successful. Our own IT security folks attempted thousands of "ethical hacks" each month, testing our systems.

During the "analogue" days, it usually took one person on the inside to violate security; today the threat is mostly external.

David Martin Loc: Cary, NC

Doctors' offices, hospitals and the like always request your social security number.
In reality, they really don't need it.
I always decline to provide it, and they never care.
One thing the feds did correctly, was to stop using SSNs for peoples' Medicare numbers.