Over 100,000 Medical Data Records Could be Dangerously Exposed

Urian B., Tech Times 02 December 2020, 12:12 pm

While almost everything nowadays is automated, it has become increasingly hard to rely on local servers to store massive amounts of data. For this reason, a number of industries and sectors like the health sector, have decided to use the Cloud in order to store their data. Although the use of the Cloud has many advantages, there is still a risk that comes along with it.

Medical data compromised

According to Engadget, thousands and thousands of medical records for certain United States patients, some of them reportedly children, were recently exposed in another lapse when it came to the health data security. A company called nTreatment, which is responsible for handling records for huge clients around the health industry, has reportedly failed to be able to protect one of its own cloud servers with a password.

The story reportedly came from TechCrunch which noted that around 109,000 files were all stored on the Cloud server. This included certain doctors' notes, other third-party test results, and even insurance claims that all came along with some of the company's own internal documents. It was stated that almost every piece of sensitive information was then viewable through a simple web browser.

nTreatment cloud storing

It is still unclear as to just how long the sensitive data was exposed out in the open, though it has reportedly been secured as of the moment. The server was reportedly used for the general-purpose of storing data according to nTreatment's very own co-founder, Gregory Katz.

According to Katz, the company will now alert the official regulators as well as the affected providers with regards to the given situation. This intense situation, although remedied, is still a slip up that should have not happened.

Millions of records exposed

Some time last year, another article by Engadget noted that the ProPublica as well as the Bayerischer Rundfunk which is a known German broadcaster, have actually found a minimum of 187 servers that were all holding medical data of certain US patients left unexposed. According to the article, the medical data had its passwords reportedly not protected.

As an underlying result, there were about millions of different test results as well as x-rays that were left all exposed online for just about anyone with access to the internet to view these sensitive data. The sensitive data that was leaked is critical since medical records in general should not be made public.

Why is exposed data dangerous?

There is still no confirmation as to whether or not the exposed data could be intentional or an honest mistake made by the company. Despite the answer, however, this is still a major issue since medical data is considered not only personal but also very sensitive.

It has been reported in the past that hackers would sometimes intentionally target medical data in order for them to gain something or cause destruction. Luckily, the data has been secured the moment that the exposure came to light. What is unknown as of the moment is if there is, and to what extent, the exposure has damaged the data.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Urian Buenconsejo