Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
zBrown
Ice climber
Brujò de la Playa
|
|
|
Topic Author's Original Post - Feb 6, 2015 - 07:50am PT
|
Are you one of the 80 million Anthem customers who, in addition to having been grossly overcharged, had your personal information stolen?
Last time I went to the doctor they wanted to scan all my id's, take a photo of me, and get an electronic copy of my signature, since they were "modernizing" by creating digital records.
How safe do you think this information is?
An interesting query, which Anthem is not answering is, 'how many records did not get hacked'? Followed by why were some protected, if in fact some were.
EDIT: For you sports-minded folks (US population estimate approx 320 milion, hacked records approx 80 million) the hackers are batting .250.
Can't wait to see the average for the whole season.
|
|
NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
|
|
If they are like most companies, they don't have the right equipment and/or (more likely) the configurations to implement their stated policies, so they don't really know the details of what happened or how extensive it was.
And if they did know, they wouldn't tell you unless the secret leaked out some other way and they couldn't plausibly deny it.
|
|
mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
|
|
^^^Zero assets!^^^
Just ask yourself, "What would Jack Reacher do?"
Zero. He'd stick out his thumb and be on the road again.
|
|
Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
|
|
I'm at the doctor's as we speak and the nurse just took my pic.
I'm all like "after 25 years with yous guys? Really?"
She promised not to put it on Facebook.
|
|
caughtinside
Social climber
Oakland, CA
|
|
I don't think jail time is the answer but if there were actually civil penalties, paid to victims of these data breaches by the companies losing the info, that'd be a start.
Glad I have no assets... Good one! A silver lining.
|
|
zBrown
Ice climber
Brujò de la Playa
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 6, 2015 - 09:21am PT
|
I would not feel too protected by a lack of assets. You can still be put in jail and harrassed. With the information that Anthem is "copping" to having lost, someone can create a "new you" (not as good as a clone, but good enough) and cause all sorts of problems for the "real" you.
For example, open new accounts in your name pops up right of the top.
Return of the debtors’ prison? Many jailed for inability to pay fines
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/return-debtors-prison/
|
|
zBrown
Ice climber
Brujò de la Playa
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 6, 2015 - 09:23am PT
|
What is Anthem saying?
Ewe (sheep) have just gotten sheared and ewe need to monitor all your credits reports (possibly forever).
|
|
WBraun
climber
|
|
What is Anthem saying?
Ewe (sheep) have just gotten sheared and ewe need to monitor all your credits reports (possibly forever).
LOL .....
|
|
kunlun_shan
Mountain climber
SF, CA
|
|
As I posted previously, Snowden criticizes the NSA for not working to help fix security flaws, and instead saving these exploits to break into systems. Meanwhile, everyone else is using the exploits, and the US has the most to lose.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
|
|
zBrown
Ice climber
Brujò de la Playa
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 7, 2015 - 07:26am PT
|
Anthem warned consumers Friday to be aware of scam email campaigns targeting current and former customers of the insurance company. The emails encourage recipients to click a link for credit monitoring services. "These emails are NOT from Anthem," the insurance company said in the statement. Nor, it said, is Anthem calling members about the attack.
Wouldn't you think that Anthem should be required to divulge to those who were hacked a complete detailed dump of all the information it keeps in it's files with an annotation for each information field as to whether or not it was compromised?
It's about time consumers have the same rights with this type of vendor as they do with the credit reporting organizations. Come to think of it the big three credit reporting companies do not provide the same information to an individual consumer that they provide to companies making inquiries about a person.
The big three need to explain and correct this discrepancy.
What, Me Worry?
|
|
Srbphoto
climber
Kennewick wa
|
|
Socialize health care/medicine now
Yup, that'll protect your personal information.
|
|
mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
|
|
What are these corp. types thinkin'?
We know what you got, so don't complain...
it's far too late to do anything about that.
"Possession of your beta is half the battle."--Sun Woo-Hoo
Loss of such is no skin off of our corporate noses,
but your own schnozzolas will likely suffer. Here's a band-aid.
It's us versus Anthem, not us and them,
forming a united front against rising medical costs.
|
|
stevep
Boulder climber
Salt Lake, UT
|
|
I work for a large healthcare IT firm. Not WellPoint/Anthem. But I'm generally pretty familiar with the security standards at these type of firms. We have two factor ID on login, are regularly forced to change fairly sophisticated passwords, have encrypted hard drives on laptops and twice annual privacy and security training. Only authorized, encrypted USB sticks can be plugged in to laptops or PCs. And plenty of standards on the network and systems. I imagine Anthem is pretty similar. I doubt this is a case of lax standards all over the place like say the Sony hack.
But these large health firms are a BIG target. They have tons of data that hackers would want, and unfortunately it only takes one small hole or mistake.
I'm sure there are some places where Anthem and pretty much every other firm can improve. But humans are fundamentally not perfect, so sh!t is going to happen. And I don't think going back to the 1950s and paper records is the answer. Too many benefits from shared information and electronic records.
I'm not sure what is the right answer...more attention and money probably needs to be spent across IT. But I think there's always going to be incidents, as the motivation for hackers is too high.
|
|
zBrown
Ice climber
Brujò de la Playa
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 7, 2015 - 08:34am PT
|
^It's easier than that.
Stop accumulating information that they have no right to nor need to have.
Delete all information they have when someone leaves the program.
Mininally, "inactive" accounts should be archived to a location that is not accessible via the internet. (A typical "compromise" solution that a bureaucrat would come up with).
I haven't been a "member" of Anthem for about eight years, why should my information have been compromised?
|
|
stevep
Boulder climber
Salt Lake, UT
|
|
True, on the historical data.
But that doesn't really solve the problem. Even medium sized healthcare entities can have several million current members.
|
|
zBrown
Ice climber
Brujò de la Playa
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 7, 2015 - 09:13am PT
|
True, on the historical data.
But that doesn't really solve the problem. Even medium sized healthcare entities can have several million current members.
And those same organizations have tons of information that they have no need for or right to.
There's another big chunk.
Next step, start penalyzing companies that "lose" people's information.
Next step two. Remove SSN's from anyone but the government's databases.
The beat goes on. Maybe this will raise a few eyebrows at the "civic centers". Govt don't cotton to no one stealing "its" money.
TurboTax stops e-filing state returns after fraud spike
“Some states have seen an increase in suspicious filings and attempts by criminals to use stolen identity information to file fraudulent state tax returns and claim tax refunds,” TurboTax’s parent company said in a release Friday.
http://nypost.com/2015/02/06/turbotax-stops-e-filing-state-returns-after-fraud-spike/
|
|
stevep
Boulder climber
Salt Lake, UT
|
|
Under current law, they do have a right to it.
And while I agree that you probably could get away from SSN, I'd argue that a lot of the remaining data is important for treatment, care and cost saving.
A fair number of people die every year because of medication and other errors caused by failure to have shared information. And the costs are in the billions. Similarly, having good, accessible records are important for reducing unnecessary treatment and improving quality of care.
You can certainly make a pretty good argument that we should switch to single payer, and get all this info out of the hands of private insurers. But then the government has it all, and hospitals still have it all. That's probably not a huge improvement on the privacy/security front.
|
|
zBrown
Ice climber
Brujò de la Playa
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 7, 2015 - 10:42am PT
|
Good pointz stevep.
First off, however, we need to have the right to access all the information about us that has been collected and see just what it is.
DMT - OK "no legitimate right"
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!