This content was created by Robert Siciliano. This content was uploaded by Robert Siciliano. This is a YouTube news segment titled "Healthcare breaches and how to protect yourself" (posted 2015-03-16) that features a journalistic conversation about cybersecurity risks to medical records following the Anthem hack. Participants include the hosts (unnamed 'Speaker A'), reporter Linda Schmidt, law professor Nicholas Terry (Indiana University, health information technology), and identity-theft expert Robert Siciliano (Hotspot Shield). The discussion covers the scope of healthcare data breaches, the case for mandatory encryption, limits of encryption, and consumer protections such as placing credit freezes with the major bureaus.
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Let's talk about something that affects a lot of people. How safe are your medical records? Cyber attacks are a growing concern in the healthcare industry. Personal data like digital medical records have now become valuable information. So how do we keep it safe? We want to help you out tonight. Linda Schmidt begins our in-depth look.
Last month, Anthem, the country's second largest health insurance company, announced it had been hacked. The cyber attackers got birthdays, Social Security numbers, home addresses, and employment information of 80 million customers. Now, that sensitive information could be sold to criminals on the black market. Currently, it is not mandatory for the healthcare industry to encrypt patients' digital medical records. Law professor Nicholas Terry says that's a critical mistake. Professor Terry teaches at Indiana University, specializing in health information technology.
The number of hacks that have been made against healthcare providers, against health insurers, suggests that this is a growing trend. It's a trend that the FBI has warned the healthcare industry about.
Professor Terry believes the federal health department should force the healthcare industry to encrypt medical data.
The dangers of leaving health data unencrypted are unacceptable.
There are patients' advocacy groups working to create a more secure exchange of electronic personal health information. Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert with Hotspot Shield, a security software company. He says encryption is the best security protection, but even encryption isn't 100% secure.
Even when data is encrypted, there are ways in which to decrypt that data by cracking the encryption code. This means that even though those additional layers of protection are in place, very sophisticated criminals can actually tear that encryption apart and still get access to the information.
Okay, good story. There is something we can do about it. Share that.
Yeah, well, you know, the security expert I talked to there was telling me the best thing that all of us can do, contact the 3 credit bureaus. I'm talking about Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. Tell them that you want a credit freeze, because when you put a freeze on your credit, if somebody does get a hold of sensitive information like your Social Security number, right, that's the key, isn't it? It's the key. It's the key. It's absolutely worthless to them if you have a credit freeze. They won't be able to to open a bank account in your name, get a mortgage in your name, buy a car.
So you put a stop to it right there.
You just put a stop to it right then and there.
So much we have to think about, right?
It's hurting my brain thinking about all this stuff.
I know, I know. Well, I don't want you to hurt your brain anymore. I want you to relax a little bit because the guru is here.
