Australia’s Version of Healthcare.gov Exposed Patient Data Multiple Times
Government (Foreign) // Healthcare and Public Health // Sydney, Australia
Apparently, the Obamacare online marketplace is not the only national government health exchange that has experienced glitches.
Australia’s government-administered online health system allowed providers to see consumers’ personal health notes.
A separate data breach, which occurred in May, resulted in consumers viewing other patients’ records on “myGov,” a one-stop online shop for all Australian government services.
The compromise affected consumers logging into myGov and linking a “Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record,” or PCEHR, to the site.
“In some instances they also accidentally set up access to another consumer’s PCEHR while still logged into their own MyGov account, linking that second consumer’s PCEHR to their own MyGov account,” according to the Annual Report of the Information Commissioner’s activities in relation to eHealth 2013–14.
“The Information Commissioner said the cause of the breach was not related to myGov, and strategies have been implemented by eHealth's system operator to prevent it from occurring again,” ZDNet reports.