If past data breeches are any indicator, there will be an ever increasing cascade of medical record and healthcare data breeches. I remember the bad old days of the 1980s. I held a security clearance and quite complacently never worried about it. Then in 1993 we had the first massive security clearance data breech. All of us that had cle…
If past data breeches are any indicator, there will be an ever increasing cascade of medical record and healthcare data breeches. I remember the bad old days of the 1980s. I held a security clearance and quite complacently never worried about it. Then in 1993 we had the first massive security clearance data breech. All of us that had clearances got a vague, yet impersonal letter from "The Pentagon" informing us that it had been discovered that the data from our security clearance interviews and disclosures had mysteriously been captured by both the non-Soviet Russians and the Chinese. It made me very circumspect in all subsequent renewal interviews and disclosures. There were at least 3 repeats of this episode before 2000. Then it all went quite on the security clearance data breech front until 2009. Then there were data breeches at many Federal levels. For me it was the Agency that was conducting our security clearance renewals and the Agency I worked for. My agency had a personnel data breech every six months like clockwork. It was always explained that someone from HQ would take an unencrypted laptop containing the personal information for every single Agency employee to the food court across the street during lunch hour and then leave it there. The Feds were always providing "free credit monitoring" for everyone in my Agency. Of course, when you acknowledged the free credit monitoring there was a clause in there giving the Feds permission to examine your credit report at any time. How thoughtful. My Security Clearance data was sold to the Chinese so many times I lost track. Then the notices of data breeches mysteriously stopped in 2016 and started back up in 2021. I'm sure there is a pattern there, but I just can't put my finger on it... The last one I got, as a retiree, was a few months ago. Once the pipeline for these things is built, it never goes away.
If past data breeches are any indicator, there will be an ever increasing cascade of medical record and healthcare data breeches. I remember the bad old days of the 1980s. I held a security clearance and quite complacently never worried about it. Then in 1993 we had the first massive security clearance data breech. All of us that had clearances got a vague, yet impersonal letter from "The Pentagon" informing us that it had been discovered that the data from our security clearance interviews and disclosures had mysteriously been captured by both the non-Soviet Russians and the Chinese. It made me very circumspect in all subsequent renewal interviews and disclosures. There were at least 3 repeats of this episode before 2000. Then it all went quite on the security clearance data breech front until 2009. Then there were data breeches at many Federal levels. For me it was the Agency that was conducting our security clearance renewals and the Agency I worked for. My agency had a personnel data breech every six months like clockwork. It was always explained that someone from HQ would take an unencrypted laptop containing the personal information for every single Agency employee to the food court across the street during lunch hour and then leave it there. The Feds were always providing "free credit monitoring" for everyone in my Agency. Of course, when you acknowledged the free credit monitoring there was a clause in there giving the Feds permission to examine your credit report at any time. How thoughtful. My Security Clearance data was sold to the Chinese so many times I lost track. Then the notices of data breeches mysteriously stopped in 2016 and started back up in 2021. I'm sure there is a pattern there, but I just can't put my finger on it... The last one I got, as a retiree, was a few months ago. Once the pipeline for these things is built, it never goes away.