By Chandresh J. Shah
(Becker’s Health IT and CIO Report)
I read the above article this morning and it shocked me.
What shocked me more is that a couple of EHR vendors mentioned in the article are very well known.
It bothered me that these cloud vendors’ data was leaking. So I read further.
There is good and bad news. The good news is that the vendors are not involved in the leak at all. The bad news is that it is up to the individual user to protect how they use cloud systems.
The data going from the browser of your computer to the vendor servers is completely encrypted. In other words, a packet of stuff leaving your office to another destination is protected by a bulletproof case. But what if somebody entered your office and stole stuff before you put it into the bulletproof case?
That is what seems to be happening here. We may unknowingly install a lot of third-party browser extensions and add-ons without knowing what they are capable of doing. These are the hidden spies and thieves lurking in your computer browsers. These rogue extensions collect information about where you serve and what you view and do online. The clicks are then harvested for marketers and data brokers.
Advise
Without going into the technical details I would advise that you use the browser without any extensions installed. If you have to install extensions, please seek the advice of a trusted IT advisor if you want to make sure the extensions are safe. Protecting your patient data should be a priority and can be done each user continues to be mindful of what should be done to protect it..
