Conversations with Friends
Lately when my friends ask me what I am going to do after graduation, and I start talking about IT I get the same questions.
What is Ethical Hacking? What is a security analyst do? Etc. Etc
More specifically, when I get to talking about securing Medical Data online. I actually had one ‘friend’ say, “why would a hacker want to hack into your information just to see if you have back problems or a urinary tract infection? That doesn’t seem very lucrative”
(Insert Mental Eye Roll Here)
So when we think about your personal medical information, lets use the exciting scandal example first. (Everyone loves a scandal.) What if the child that isn’t your husbands child, has a DNA test in their medical file listing a father that is not the same as what is on its birth certificate. What if this family scandal ruins the entire family structure, leading to divorce, counseling and a whole mess of emotional problems? -Because you couldn’t pay the “ransom” that the hackers were requesting to keep that quiet?
Or a more realistic example. Your medical files have literally everything a hacker would want to know. Your social and birthday for one. Then if the information is being stolen to be able to actually assume the victims identity (that is often sold to the highest bidder) then they have any kind of verifying details that someone would need. Conditions, location, family members, children, occupation, etc. It is all right there for the taking. And this is why we have HIPPA laws and CI companies that help to prevent this from happening to you.
A good true crime story about ID theft is one called “Identity Theft: The Michelle Brown Story” (They even did a lifetime remake of the story too) It’s super interesting because of the REAL solid example of what ID theft really IS. Not the little 2 bit hustle the drug addicts and criminals use today to get a “fast buck”. Like real, true Identity Theft. This is a link to her testimony.
https://www.privacyrights.org/written-testimony-michelle-brown
It’s a tough job being in IT. And I say that only because it is frustrating how much of the world really just doesn’t have any idea. Which then makes them victims because they have no safeguards in place, because they don’t know to look for them. At what point do we REALLY get the word out there? In a perfect world you should have to have a license to operate a computer or be on the internet. Just like a drivers license. :-)
Stay tuned for more on this journey! My class stops here but the information doesn’t.
Be well and stay safe. <3













