Major medical hack could expose your data to opportunistic criminals

In this newly digitized world, we as people are giving up far too much of our privacy in exchange for some meager convenience…and now we are paying the price.

The internet, and the connectivity that it brings to us, is an incredible boon to our existence.  No longer are we bound by the mortal intelligence of our years within the education system.  Now, we can simply use a thumb or two to wrangle whatever information we could ever want, from plant identification to bomb-making – it’s all out there on the internet.

Virtually downloading information into our knowledge base is one thing, but when our data heads back upstream, into the digital ether, we run the risk of exposing ourselves to wiles of cyber criminals.

It’s one thing when your credit card information is hacked.  It’s terribly annoying and fiscally frustrating, but there are safeguards in place for this sort of thing and the banking industry has done a fair job of catching up to the times.

But what happens when your medical data is stolen?

Quest Diagnostics, one of the biggest blood testing providers in the country, warned Monday that nearly 12 million of its customers may have had personal, financial and medical information breached due to an issue with one of its vendors.

In a filing with securities regulators, Quest said it was notified that between Aug. 1, 2018 and March 30, 2019, someone had unauthorized access to the systems of AMCA, a billing collections vendor.

Quest says that the hack did not expose specific lab test results, but that hackers may have access to the broader health information attached to your name.