Millions of medical records, private information spilled on Amazon
As many as 1.5 million records, which included private health records and other contact information of Americans, have been reported accidentally spilled on the AWS cloud services. Patient names, residential addresses, and personal phone numbers were along with biological health information of the records. These included existing illnesses and current medications too. The data was posted in the clear test to the Amazon servers by insurers using Systema Software.
At present it is unknown on how the information data got up there and how many were affected by the leak. The Register reported that Kansas’ State Self Insurance Fund, CSAC Excess Insurance Authority, and the Salt Lake County Database are known to be affected. Texan tech Chris Vickery was the person who spotted the files on Amazon’s cloud servers and immediately reported the breach to Systema Software. On receiving the tip from Chris, the company has warned the affected customers and has also started an investigation.
According to the report, Chris estimated that social security numbers, financial transactions and thousands of injury records were included. What was also shocking that the data showed off password hashes, login names, and session information of each user. Systema Software, in their investigation, found that Chris is an unauthorized user and gained access to the data. With the help of the state attorney general's office, the sensitive data on Chris’ computer was officially was wiped off. Chris is presently cooperating with the investigators.
The Register further reports that Databreaches.net first reported the breach and says exposed information includes billing pirces, various patient identification numbers, and some 4.7 million note entries including data on fraud investigations. Some of the notes include data on legal matters. One cited by Vickery details an apparent raid of medical marijuana plants.
