File-Sharing Software threat to privacy of health

Lifestyle and financial information stored in thousands of home computers in North America may be vulnerable to theft by file-sharing software, according to research studies published in the online journal of the American Association of Medical Informatics.

Health professionals who bring home the patient information for personal computers with peer-to-peer sharing software, endangering the confidentiality of the patient, note the authors of the study.

"Computer users in May unaware that sensitive information in their personal folders on your computer may be exposed to other users, since some manufacturers of software that contains the dangerous possibilities have been used," said Prof. Khaled El Emam, Canada Research Chair in Electronic Medical Information and the author of the study.

File used CHEO Team El Emam-sharing software popular access to the documents downloaded from a representative sample of IP addresses. They were able to identify personal health and financial information of individuals in Canada and access to the United States. Research for the study was approved by the Ethics Committee of CHEO.

The study is the first such empirical estimation of the extent to which personal health information be made public by sharing files.

North Americans file, using sharing software like Limewire, Kazaa, BitTorrent, and especially to share and access music, video and pornography.

During their research on this project, El Emam said he and his colleagues have evidence of actively seeking foreign files private healthcare and financial data found. "There is no obvious reason why innocent people should be looking for this type of information," said El Emam. "Search terms were very simple very effective in the return of sensitive documents."

Most Canadians would be better not to use the tools for sharing files, if they want to protect sensitive data. "Felt the privacy of using conservation programs" needs a major information technology skills, "adds Dr. El Emam.

Only a small fraction of IP addresses, the researchers examined contained information on personal health, but by tens of millions of people using peer-to-peer file sharing in North America, this percentage translates into Tens of thousands of computers.

The security of financial information from more public attention and researchers have found that a higher percentage of downloaded files contained personal financial information. But if the United States and Canada adopt a greater digitization of medical records, ensuring confidentiality of health information is becoming a hot button topic.

A sample of the team of private health information on the CHEO could find by entering keywords in the simple file sharing software:

* A document of authorization for medical treatment to a person of the Ontario Health Insurance card number, date of birth, telephone number and details of other insurance;
* Consent adolescents include a name, family medical, telephone number, date of birth, social security number and medical history, including current medications;
* Several documents prepared by persons who reported all their credit card information, including account numbers and PINs, passwords and credit card.