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Exposed!
According to Broward Health Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer Brian Kozik, a cyber-breach of Broward Health’s patient medical records and other personal financial data were exposed to a hacker (s). The hackers gained access to the personal information of over one million patients — perhaps north of 1.5 million visitors who have — over the years, checked in as a patient at the hospital. In most cases, it is the practice of Broward Health personnel, when possible, to carry out a wallet (pocketbook) biopsy on patients before rendering treatment or service. They gather a slew of information that has everything to do with money — not medicine. Now, they have compromised that information.
Bad Financial Medicine
Broward Health Imperial Point, formerly known as Broward General Hospital, is a publicly funded hospital with many third-party vendors that have access to patient information. It is a web that beckons invaders to enter, view, take your information, and do with it as they please. The system operates in thirty locations in Broward County — five significant hospitals and twenty-seven satellite facilities. With COVID-19 and its never-ending variants, the hospitals are under a financial mandate to deal with COVID patients first, thus leaving other Emergency Room visitors sometimes to sit and wait for eight, nine hours to be seen by a “Provider.” Emergency Rooms have become waiting rooms. Hopefully, they become dying rooms for Emergency visitors.
The mammoth organization is the tenth-largest hospital in the nation, with 8,280 employees. Annually, they take in billions of dollars from the federal government in Medicare and Medicaid revenue and hundreds of millions of dollars from the state of Florida. Seven commissioners appointed by the Governor oversee the Hospital.
Given all the published cyberattacks on businesses, what director of security in his right mind would not take the precautions to secure such a treasure trove of patients’ personal, financial, and HIPAA-protected information of so many vulnerable people? In 2020, Broward Health North alone had over 52,000 admissions in its 1,579 Licensed Beds units and 246,000 emergency room visits. That is a lot of data to discard on the streets of the Internet Highway/world wide web.
What Patient Information Was Stolen?
According to Broward Health’s website, “Patients’ personal medical information that was accessed may have included your name, date of birth, address, phone number, financial or bank account number, social security number, insurance information and number, medical information that may include history, condition, treatment, and diagnoses, medical record number, driver’s license number, and email address. This information was ex-filtrated or removed from the Broward Health system. However, there is no evidence that the intruder has misused the information.” So far they have not misused the information.
Those whose information they have misused did not know where the cyber-criminal got their banking information because Broward Health waited for almost three months to inform the affected parties of the Breach in January 2022. The Breach took place on October 15, 2021.
The fiscal year 2022 should be “One less bell to answer, one less egg to fry, and one less sloppy Broward Health Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer to pick up after.”
Broward Health claims the district is hurting for money because of the COVID-19. They declared the year 2020 as the year of the pandemic. “The District experienced a loss of roughly eight thousand admissions, thirty-eight hundred elective surgical cases, and sixty-five thousand emergency cases in the fiscal year 2021.” Add those numbers up, and those are the people cyber-bandits did not capture their personal information.
After the breach, Broward Health hired a security firm to close the open door in the database. But that is like closing the barn door after the jackass has already fled the barn.
Broward Health is offering free credit monitoring service to those affected by the breach.
“You may also want to consider obtaining a free copy of your credit report from each of the three major credit reporting agencies once every 12 months by visiting www.annualcreditreport.com, calling 1-877-322-8228, or by completing an Annual Credit Request Form and mailing it to Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348. You can print a copy of the request form at www.annualcreditreport.com/manualRequestForm.action.”
Equifax
1-866-640-2273
www.equifax.com
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374
Experian
1-888-397-3742
www.experian.com
P.O. Box 2002
Allen, TX 75013
TransUnion
1-855-681-3196
www.transunion.com
P.O. Box 2000
Chester, PA 19016
You may also choose to contact the three national credit reporting agencies listed above for information about placing a “fraud alert” and/or a “security freeze” on your credit report to further detect any possible misuse of your personal information. Contact the Federal Trade Commission for additional information about “fraud alerts” and “security freezes,” and about how to monitor and protect your credit and finances.
Federal Trade Commission
600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20580
(202) 326-2222
www.ftc.gov
Clinton Franklin is a formally trained Computer Scientist and a writer at heart. Clinton is an avid observer of nature and a lover of people and diverse cultures. He adheres to the adage, “Think globally, but act locally.”
It is crucial to be forward-thinking but not a forward person. “Be kind to everyone you meet because each carries his heavy burden…” Plato.
Embrace the three Constants: Change, Justice, and Rightness.
The thought police are busy at work trying to suppress free speech — if allowed their march to madness — they will arrest your very thoughts.
