‘You can’t undo that damage’: How safe is your health data?

Among those planning to opt out is Monash University software engineering lecturer Robert Merkel, who has concerns about the safety of his information under the government’s My Health Record system.

“I don’t think the security measures [health care providers have] are commensurate with the sensitivity of that data and the incentives that some criminals may have to illegally gain access to it,” Dr Merkel said. “The security on your bank systems is not perfect either, but in general if you lose money, you can be compensated for that. If your private health information is leaked you can’t undo that damage.”

However, even in the world’s most online security-focused countries like Israel, which was among the first to digitise health records, protecting medical organisations is a relatively recent consideration.

Speaking at Tel Aviv University’s annual international cybersecurity conference, Cyber Week 2018, professor Isaac Ben-Israel, head of the Blavatnik Interdisciplinary cyber research centre and chairman of the conference, said he had focused on cybersecurity for decades but health was often overlooked.

In 1999, when working for the Israel Defence Forces, Professor Ben-Israel gave the Israeli government a 36-strong list of critical infrastructure, from power production and water supply to banking, under threat from cyber attacks. Healthcare was not added to the list until 2010.

Read the article by Jennifer Duke in The Sydney Morning Herald.