Vigilance needed to avoid the hacking

A few days ago, I got an email from my doctor’s office, reminding me of a coming appointment.

The email encouraged me to check in electronically – complete with a delusory enticement to “avoid the wait.”

The doctor’s office, or rather the health care behemoth that owns the doctor’s office, encouraged me to fill out a full health questionnaire on its “user-friendly” portal. It would like me to pay for services that way, too, because nobody wants the fuss of human interchange or the hoary drill of a personal check, a clear indication of AARP membership.

I’ve become deeply suspicious of these electronic portals, and not just because I’m uncomfortable answering questions about how many sex partners I’ve had. (A response to which I lose either way).

Despite their declarations of defending a patient’s privacy with their last breath, hospital systems seem scandalously easy to hack, putting patient lives and financial security at risk.

The number of U.S. hospital systems known to have been hit by ransomware in 2023 doubled from 2022, cybersecurity firm Emsisoft reported. One of them was a shattering breach of Prospect Medical Holdings, owner of Waterbury Hospital, which paralyzed the hospitals’ operations for nearly six weeks. Full extent of the damage may never be fully known, but we already know that 110,000 Connecticut residents and 24,000 employees of the California-based hospital chain may have had some of their personal information, including Social Security numbers, compromised.

More than 6 million Americans had their medical data stolen or exposed in more than 400 cyberattacks, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported last year. Increasingly, the perpetrators are not rogue hackers in suburban basements but organized criminal gangs and foreign agents.

And my doctor’s office wants me to pay online?

C’mon. I may still use stamps, but I’m no dupe.

Last year, the president of the American Hospital Association said the record number of hacks of hospitals was putting patients at risk. It already has. A state Department of Public Health investigation into Waterbury Hospital found numerous deficiencies and violations over the…