So in California, there is Meditab. Meditab is a software company that keeps medical records for medical employees and facilities. They also process e-faxes in the medical field. But a problem came up. According to tech media sources like TechCrunch,? a security lapse breaches medical records.
So according to these sources,? it started with a server. This server didn’t have a password. This server leaked thousands of medical records. This includes everything from prescriptions to diagnosis, and then some. If this isn’t enough, then keep in mind Meditab is the best at what they do. At least that’s their reputation. However, in this case, someone failed to fully secure the fax server, with no password. And as the saying goes, “When the cats are away, the rats will play.”.
Since March 2018, Meditab processed over six million medical records. But because somebody didn’t give this server a password, anybody can break in and read other people’s records. So I guess we can be thankful that the breach leaked only thousands of records, instead of millions. Like I said, these faxes included lots of medical information. And I mean intimate information. But they also include things like names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and payment info. What is even scarier? Some of the info was on child patients. Then to add on to the scary, none of this info was encrypted.
That is how this security lapse breaches medical records. Here at Computer Geeks, we tell all clients the importance of password protection. By 2019, this should be computer repair 101. But as we can see, anyone can make an honest mistake. It was a bad one, but an honest one. So far, this is all we know about the breach. I’m talking about this because this can happen to anybody, no matter how big or small your business is. What are other lessons playing out here? And what is Meditab doing about it?