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I cannot wait for my US based medical record to be leaked at some point. There will probably be somebody who creates a torrent of these records to be downloaded

I cannot wait for my US based medical record to be leaked at some point. There will probably be somebody who creates a torrent of these records to be downloaded at some point in time. I have little faith in the US government or the various US healthcare providers keeping their databases properly secured from attack. I am saying this as somebody with 2 rare immune-mediated neurological diseases affecting my peripheral nervous system, plus type 1 diabetes (autoimmune and insulin-dependent). I have far more faith in the European Union, even though it has issues. I live in Europe, and it is a breath of fresh air.

callamdelaney 5y ago
The NHS is particularly incompetent in this respect. edit: Here are some sources to support my point: NHS patient data breached at least 1,395 times in two years (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44682369 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44682369) NHS data breach affects 150,000 patients in England (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44682369 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44682369) Over 18K COVID-19 Patients’ Data Mistakenly Exposed by NHS Trust (https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/security-data-protection/over-18k-covid-19-patients-data-mistakenly-exposed-by-nhs-trust/ https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/security-data-pro...)
- disabled 5y ago
  Yeah, true. But, the EU is a regulatory stronghold. The EU does take action on this sort of stuff, and will create standards if necessary. We still have a long ways to go, but it is a "going to the moon" type of an issue rather than a "solving global warming" type issue. In the US, our Congress is extremely technologically incompetent, with a few isolated exceptions with respect to individuals.
  - vmception 5y ago
    and also NHS isn’t in the European Union so you dont have to worry about them (just some other agencies that don’t occupy my mindshare)
    - callamdelaney 5y ago
      True, but as of now they adhere to basically the same data protection laws and many breaches occurred while stile a member state.
  - metters 5y ago
    Don't worry, the members of parliament of the EU are also extremely incompetent when it comes to technology. What comes to my mind is this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnther_Oettinger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnther_Oettinger
    - disabled 5y ago
      They are way ahead than the US when it comes to competence in tech legislation.
      - iso1631 5y ago
        Does the US have a civil service that creates the actual laws to go to parliament for debate and voting?
        lazyasciiart 5y ago
        No. The laws are written by lobbyists and the personal staff of the politicians.
        sul_tasto 5y ago
        I think the laws are usually written by corporate lobbyists.
- DanBC 5y ago
  Two of your links are to the same story. https://theferret.scot/nhs-patient-data-breached-1395-times-in-two-years/ https://theferret.scot/nhs-patient-data-breached-1395-times-...
I_am_tiberius 5y ago
I live in Europe and I would like to decide myself whether my healthcare data is stored somewhere in the in the long term or not.
- orwin 5y ago
  It's on your hospital servers. Or in your hospital closets, depending on where you live. In my country you're supposed to have a small medical book with all relevant informations. Now, it doesn't work, so: your public healthcare is tied to an hospital, and your private healthcare... Who knows. What I can tell you is that a lot of effort is going towards data sharing between hospitals (in data vaults) in my country and that medical data is probably my most protected data.
antman 5y ago
Disclaimer: Related to projects regarding medical bills and insurance prediction. I can assure you the data is safe due to being a total mess. Antiquated systems, archived data in different formats, cross institutions joined data based on intuition. Might get something but everything is so disjoint you would need a magician not a hacker for something sizeable. EU countries at least some western ones I have worked with are OK but their implementation mirrors each country's bureaucracy.
- disabled 5y ago
  True. But, honestly, health insurance claims would be an excellent target. If released via a torrent at the right period of time, it could be powerful, such as right before health reform, if it is the right legal bill to prey on. The same would apply if there is some huge financial crisis in the US. In the US, I was receiving a blood product that cost my employer (not insurance--the employer was self-insured) USD $275,000+/year. I require other expensive drugs too.
  - nceqs3 5y ago
    Wow, $275k per year. Have you faced any retribution or harassment from your company over this?
    - disabled 5y ago
      No, but this is an excellent reason why healthcare should never be tied to your employment. This is not an uncommon occurance, at all. 10% of the general population can theoretically benefit from an orphan drug. In America an orphan drug costs hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to millions of dollars per year, and it is very frequently needed for the rest of the individual's life. I never plan on working in the US again. I am a dual US|EU (Croatian) citizen, currently living in Croatia. There are about 30 countries in Europe that I can legally live/work/retire in, so I have it good.
- qwertox 5y ago
  > I can assure you the data is safe due to being a total mess. Maybe this increases the probability of getting put into the bucket of false positives.
raverbashing 5y ago
In technological matters, the governments in the EU are very behind The Irish health service is currently under a ransomware attack. Also remember when the Berlin courts were 'hacked' because they were still using Windows 95? (It's been a couple of years already) And in the end, securing systems will help, but this won't stop until the people doing this are held responsible.
lbriner 5y ago
The EU might have good intention but with the current system (technical and bureaucratic), you still cannot know that data has not been hacked and misused - it only takes one screwup and with the people I have worked with over the years, there is no reason to think that a screw up is ever that far away. I think the only saving grace at the moment is that the chance of any individual being taken advantage of is low simply because there are so many people. I would be much more worried if I was important and more likely to be targetted.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
specialist 5y ago
It's inevitable. Source: Worked in healthcare IT implementing electronic medical record exchanges.
profile53 5y ago
I work in a hospital and just rebooted a network connected computer running windows XP. Not isolated from the main hospital network as far as I can tell. Your lack of faith is warranted.

callamdelaney 5y ago

The NHS is particularly incompetent in this respect. edit: Here are some sources to support my point: NHS patient data breached at least 1,395 times in two years (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44682369 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44682369) NHS data breach affects 150,000 patients in England (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44682369 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44682369) Over 18K COVID-19 Patients’ Data Mistakenly Exposed by NHS Trust (https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/security-data-protection/over-18k-covid-19-patients-data-mistakenly-exposed-by-nhs-trust/ https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/security-data-pro...)

disabled 5y ago
Yeah, true. But, the EU is a regulatory stronghold. The EU does take action on this sort of stuff, and will create standards if necessary. We still have a long ways to go, but it is a "going to the moon" type of an issue rather than a "solving global warming" type issue. In the US, our Congress is extremely technologically incompetent, with a few isolated exceptions with respect to individuals.
- vmception 5y ago
  and also NHS isn’t in the European Union so you dont have to worry about them (just some other agencies that don’t occupy my mindshare)
  - callamdelaney 5y ago
    True, but as of now they adhere to basically the same data protection laws and many breaches occurred while stile a member state.
- metters 5y ago
  Don't worry, the members of parliament of the EU are also extremely incompetent when it comes to technology. What comes to my mind is this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnther_Oettinger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnther_Oettinger
  - disabled 5y ago
    They are way ahead than the US when it comes to competence in tech legislation.
    - iso1631 5y ago
      Does the US have a civil service that creates the actual laws to go to parliament for debate and voting?
      - lazyasciiart 5y ago
        No. The laws are written by lobbyists and the personal staff of the politicians.
      - sul_tasto 5y ago
        I think the laws are usually written by corporate lobbyists.
DanBC 5y ago
Two of your links are to the same story. https://theferret.scot/nhs-patient-data-breached-1395-times-in-two-years/ https://theferret.scot/nhs-patient-data-breached-1395-times-...

I_am_tiberius 5y ago

I live in Europe and I would like to decide myself whether my healthcare data is stored somewhere in the in the long term or not.

orwin 5y ago
It's on your hospital servers. Or in your hospital closets, depending on where you live. In my country you're supposed to have a small medical book with all relevant informations. Now, it doesn't work, so: your public healthcare is tied to an hospital, and your private healthcare... Who knows. What I can tell you is that a lot of effort is going towards data sharing between hospitals (in data vaults) in my country and that medical data is probably my most protected data.

antman 5y ago

Disclaimer: Related to projects regarding medical bills and insurance prediction. I can assure you the data is safe due to being a total mess. Antiquated systems, archived data in different formats, cross institutions joined data based on intuition. Might get something but everything is so disjoint you would need a magician not a hacker for something sizeable. EU countries at least some western ones I have worked with are OK but their implementation mirrors each country's bureaucracy.

disabled 5y ago
True. But, honestly, health insurance claims would be an excellent target. If released via a torrent at the right period of time, it could be powerful, such as right before health reform, if it is the right legal bill to prey on. The same would apply if there is some huge financial crisis in the US. In the US, I was receiving a blood product that cost my employer (not insurance--the employer was self-insured) USD $275,000+/year. I require other expensive drugs too.
- nceqs3 5y ago
  Wow, $275k per year. Have you faced any retribution or harassment from your company over this?
  - disabled 5y ago
    No, but this is an excellent reason why healthcare should never be tied to your employment. This is not an uncommon occurance, at all. 10% of the general population can theoretically benefit from an orphan drug. In America an orphan drug costs hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to millions of dollars per year, and it is very frequently needed for the rest of the individual's life. I never plan on working in the US again. I am a dual US|EU (Croatian) citizen, currently living in Croatia. There are about 30 countries in Europe that I can legally live/work/retire in, so I have it good.
qwertox 5y ago
> I can assure you the data is safe due to being a total mess. Maybe this increases the probability of getting put into the bucket of false positives.

raverbashing 5y ago

In technological matters, the governments in the EU are very behind The Irish health service is currently under a ransomware attack. Also remember when the Berlin courts were 'hacked' because they were still using Windows 95? (It's been a couple of years already) And in the end, securing systems will help, but this won't stop until the people doing this are held responsible.

lbriner 5y ago

The EU might have good intention but with the current system (technical and bureaucratic), you still cannot know that data has not been hacked and misused - it only takes one screwup and with the people I have worked with over the years, there is no reason to think that a screw up is ever that far away. I think the only saving grace at the moment is that the chance of any individual being taken advantage of is low simply because there are so many people. I would be much more worried if I was important and more likely to be targetted.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

specialist 5y ago

It's inevitable. Source: Worked in healthcare IT implementing electronic medical record exchanges.

profile53 5y ago

I work in a hospital and just rebooted a network connected computer running windows XP. Not isolated from the main hospital network as far as I can tell. Your lack of faith is warranted.