Cyber warfare could target e-health records

While e-health records appear to be all the rage inside and outside government these days, few experts are looking at their potential vulnerability to cyberattacks. Speaking before a health standards committee organized by the Department of Health and Human Services, one witness raised the specter of a pending disaster if cyber terrorists decide to target e-health records.

Chad Skidmore, director of network services for Inland Northwest Health Services, a network of 34 hospitals in Spokane, WA., said it would be a fast way to destabilize countries by infiltrating health systems to change patient records so misinformation will lead to deadly consequences.

Bob Brewin reports for Nextgov.com on Skidmore's dismal predictions, saying a hacker could manipulate patient information such as blood type or other patient details that could lead to deadly results. He adds that hospitals and health care systems are particularly vulnerable because they spend 3 percent or less of their IT budget on information security.

And less than half of health organizations surveyed last summer by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society had a chief information security officer and less than half encrypted stored data, according to the survey. Could this be an issue of penny wise and pound foolish, a problem of finding the resources to protect the data or just plain ignorance about what needs to be done to secure a website?

The hearing had some even more troubling testimony.

Ryan Smith, assistant vice president of eBusiness, part of Intermountain Health Care in Salt Lake City, which operates 23 hospitals in Utah, said that organizations using cloud computing to store patient records remotely will make it increasingly difficult for hospitals to monitor and track who accesses patient records.

With testimony like this warning about such difficulties, it seems imperative for hospitals, doctors and health care organizations to find a way to clamp down on their data. While it may be extremely difficult to prevent a hack attack, not to mention expensive, it's at least harder when there are security features in place to surprise the cyber enemy.

For more on the dangers of e-health records:
- see this Nextgov.com article

Related Articles:
Health care providers face security challenges
Survey: Fed agencies face cybersecurity attacks daily
How much do the Feds spend on cybersecurity?