New Threats Are Putting Sensitive Patient Information at Risk. Are Your Records Safe?

A pair of high-profile incidents should serve as a sharp reminder to always keep cybersecurity in mind when conducting or promoting your business online. First, as reported by the Washington Post, hospitals and health systems that employ Twitter’s advertising pixel could inadvertently be sending sensitive information back to the social media company, with a high risk that the data could be shared with entities that have invested heavily in Twitter. According to the WaPo article, “anyone who invests $250 million or more in the social media giant is given more access to personal data of Twitter’s users than lower-level investors.” The Post says as of November at least 70,000 organizations, including payers and health systems, had the code on their sites. Meanwhile, CommonSpirit Health was just hit with a ransomware attack that resulted in a breach of data for more than 620,000 patients. As reported by Becker’s IT Health, data including names, addresses, contact information, and other patient identifiers may have been exposed. There’s no indication as to whether that information has been misused, currently. Such incidents occur all-to frequently. To get a sense of how protected you are, read Education Is Key to Avoiding Increasingly Sophisticated Cyber Crime in the JUCM archive.