“You guys are forgetting that other data sources have your info without you doing any online transactions. Consider the IRS records, local county tax records, real estate records, credit report companies, etc. You may not enter or place your info online, but somebody else does.”
One of the most vulnerable places is our health care system even before Obozo Care.
Medicare, Medicaid and most insurance companies use one # for patients, our Social Security #.
Then, they have our DOB, sometimes POB, address, phone #, Cell phone # and email sites.
Many medical providers do a credit check so they have that number/data.
Many providers seem to prefer being paid by credit card, if so they have that number.
If you pay by check, they have all of your banking numbers.
Often the lowest paid people in a medical office have full access to all of the above, plus your medical history.
Last summer, our FP/s retired or went to a big HMO.
So we had to fill out all of the data above to be seen. The local group’s site was not verified and brought up warnings from my internet provider and services like Norton. I told our new FP, and he laughed until I showed him the warnings. He made a couple of quick calls, and the patient side of their site was shut down until a new site was opened up. Their current site is verified and seems okay now.
Another site a surgical specialty site has yet to get its act together. We pay our bills with electronic checks or cash.
Another specialty medical site had a similar problem, and that seems to be okay since they merged with the local hospital, which is part of a big California hospital organization. This organization has a lot of employee unrest and union battles which is not a reassurance.
Last but not least are the Store discount cards which market/mine our private data. The one such card I have, I am St Nick, born on the 4th of July in 1918. In five years, only one clerk has picked up on my fantasy ID, and she just laughed.
Agreed. Perhaps the only saving grace is that greed may overtake the hackers to the extent that large sums of money are detected as moving from place to place and catches the eye of Law Enforcement. If they stay small, they likely will never be caught. There are simply too many sources from which to piece together a user profile and then raid their accounts. Especially when governments support this type of behavior.