More and more, hackers are attacking computers at big companies, stealing data.
Increasingly, they are targeting healthcare providers, hospitals and insurance companies.
These entities have a job on their hands trying to prevent these hacks.
They are easy targets because when hospitals or systems merge or buy each other out,
each side may use different systems, so it all has to be changed over to one for both.
In addition, many hospitals use outdated computer systems, making them easy to hack.
They find themselves scrambling to protect people's information.
By law, if a health care hack compromises information for over 500 people,
It has to be reported to the government.
According to government records, over 1,200 such breaches have occurred since 1997.
Encryption means converting data into code.
Special software is needed to convert it back into readable form.
It helps protect the data. Without it, it's easier to steal usable data.
There is no law requiring files to be encrypted.
Why are health care providers and insurances being targeted now?
The information stolen can be used to extort money, for fraud,
applying for loans with false information or identity theft.
With information such as social security number, birthdate and address,
a hacker can impersonate someone and steal their identity.
It can also be used to file false insurance claims and purchase drugs for resale.
They could contact people and threaten to release private health information unless paid.
A person could have HIV and not want others to know.
Hackers have no moral compass and don't care who they hurt.
Blue Cross/Blue Shield is the largest health insurance company in the USA,
with over 100 million members in state based subsidiaries.
For example, there's Blue Cross of Michigan, or Blue Cross of New York, and so on.
Another company, Wellpoint, which is now Anthem, is the second largest.
They have 34 million members.
Some of their policies are sold under the Blue Cross umbrella.
Anthem had to pay $1.7 million in fines in 2013.
That was because people's private information showed up on the internet.
600,000 people's names, social security numbers and health information were exposed.
They agreed to pay the fine for their negligence.
On January 29, Anthem discovered it had been hacked.
The actual hack may have occurred in early December or before that.
The FBI was immediately notified, and they hired the cybersecurity firm, Mandiant.
The incident made the news on February 5.
The information of 80 million current and former members as well as employees was involved.
Health records and credit card information was not affected.
Social security numbers, income data, birth dates, home and email addresses were stolen.
80 million poeple were affected.
The Chinese are believed to be behind this hack.
They are suspected in other hacks as well.
Last August, Community Health Systems, a large hospital system, had their computers hacked.
The names, addresses and social security numbers of over 4 million patients was stolen.
After that hack, the FBI warned that health care entities were being targeted.
Anthem CEO Joseph R Swedish said his own information was also stolen in the hack.
Everyone will be notified, and free credit monitoring and ID protection services offered.
Another cybersecurity firm, CrowdStrike, is owned by Dmitri Alperovitch.
He says the Chinese government has stepped up hacking health care services in the last 6 months.
They're after social security numbers and other information.
He says China is trying to gather up as much information as possible to be used later.
China has broken into other systems besides health care networks.
The company responsible for screening applicant backgrounds for Homeland Security
was hacked as well as state DMV or Secretary of State offices.
China has also hacked into other government agencies as they have a lot of data.
Joel Brenner is a former intelligence official.
He says China has a lot of information on a lot of Americans
that can be used for infiltrating the military and spy agencies.
They have the health records, fingerprints and names of people already in the military,
or who are candidates for the FBI, CIA and other agencies.
Their information could be used to coerce people into divulging more information.
It's getting worse. You may have noticed OIC Movies was hacked about February 1.
It wasn't the Chinese, though, it apparently was an Islamic group.
They vowed to take revenge on enemies of Islam.
They hacked OIC, then bragged about it on Facebook, which was irritating to say the least.
They actually deleted all the vlogs from OIC, so OIC had to scramble to get it back.
Fortunately, there were backups and they were slowly replaced on the server.
More and more, people just don't care. Nothing is safe any more.
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