Personal health information ‘disturbingly’ vulnerable: B.C. privacy commissioner
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VICTORIA — British Columbia’s privacy watchdog says sensitive personal health records, from mental health to sexually transmitted disease histories, are “disturbingly” vulnerable to leaks.
Information and privacy commissioner Michael McEvoy says in a report released by his office that security gaps in the public health computer system put it at risk of abuse by bad actors, from cyber criminals to jilted lovers looking for information about an ex.
The report says collecting and storing personal information is vital to the delivery of health care and managing threats like communicable disease outbreaks, but the system’s “entry gate” is weak and the industry standard of multi-factor authentication for access is not universally required.
It says there’s also no proactive audit program that would alert authorities to those who try to use the system for nefarious purposes and, instead, threats are only addressed after a breach or security issue occurs.
