Hacking Away at Healthcare 0
There is nothing more private than a medical condition. People go to great lengths to keep their ailments private. Now, consider this, when the government takes over healthcare there is going to be a desire to keep tabs on people and store that information in a database. Any potential database could cost taxpayers millions, maybe even billions of dollars. Then there is the problem of security. How secure will a government database (or any database for that matter) be?
A May 4 Washington Post article may provide some insight in to potential problems with a database:
Hackers last week broke into a Virginia state Web site used by pharmacists to track prescription drug abuse. They deleted records on more than 8 million patients and replaced the site’s homepage with a ransom note demanding $10 million for the return of the records, according to a posting on Wikileaks.org, an online clearinghouse for leaked documents.
Wow, if this doesn’t make the hair on the back of your neck stand up nothing will. A national database of people and their ailments could be the scariest scenario possible.
While you may think that this is paranoia, consider what happened last year when State Department officials were snooping around the passport files of then Presidential candidates, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain. According to CBS News:
State Department workers pried into the supposedly secure passport files of presidential contenders Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain, abashed officials admitted Friday in a revelation that had Condoleezza Rice telephoning the candidates to personally apologize.
The federal government needs to tread lightly as they consider gathering any information about American citizens.