My Health privacy fears are realised: The online health records of dozens of Australians have been already been illegally accessed - including by CHILDREN.

The Australian Digital Health Agency has revealed in its annual report 42 suspected cases of unauthorised viewing of e-health records.

The health agency's annual report, released on Monday, revealed 42 possible cases of data being illegally accessed.

One case included a child wrongly being given incorrect authorised parental access.

Another two cases involved suspected Medicare fraud.

The chief executive of Medicare also identified 17 cases involving the Department of Human Services accessing e-health records to cross-check Medicare records.

Another 22 breaches involved unauthorised Medicare claims appearing in My Health records.

All up, 42 data breaches were reported to the Australian Information Commissioner.

More than 17 million Australians now have all their private medical records uploaded online as part of the My Health revolution.

Earlier this year, domestic violence groups pleaded with the government to suspend the system until serious privacy issues were addressed.

They were concerned that abusive husbands and boyfriends, with knowledge of passwords, would be able to access confidential records to track down women.

Rape and Domestic Violence Services Australia feared a domineering man could illegally access sensitive details about a woman's sexual history, pregnancy status, mental health, where she lived and any reports about violence.

'The proposed My Health system presents an unacceptable safety risk for women and children experiencing violence,' it said in a submission to a Senate inquiry.

The Sydney-based crisis counselling group said a doctor could also illegally access the data on behalf of a violent husband or boyfriend.

'The perpetrator may have access to his partner or children's log in details,' it said.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6540685/My-Health-online-records-illegally-accessed-Australian-Digital-Health-Agency-reveals-report.html

** The system could also easily be hacked into via the terminal in a doctors surgery from another computer **

** 42 breaches reported but how many are there that have not been reported because they appeared as legitimate requests for information? **

Told you so.

I do not fear government knowing too much
But Health? Doctors get big bucks for selling medicines to us from drug company's and it reaks of corruption
So? yes not unexpected but we need better

One problem is any database that is connected to the internet is susceptible to hacking, this database has to be connected to the internet so doctors etc can access it.

Crazy but its benefit is also its vulnerability.

The Governments trying to say massive penalties for misuse will make it safe is just plain lunacy.

A possible solution would be a wristband issued to people who want one that has all your medical records on it, the doctors can easily update it at the surgery using NFC, just like a Bluetooth device and it does not have to then have your address etc.

Also you can control what is or is not on it.

Insurance companies will exploit the My Health Database for sure.

Belly it is not the Government knowing that is the problem the insurance companies, drug companies, criminals etc they are part of the problem.

So much for database security.

Data breach sees Victorian Government employees' details stolen.

The work details of 30,000 Victorian public servants have been stolen in a data breach, after part of the Victorian Government directory was downloaded by an unknown party.

The list is available to government employees and contains work emails, job titles and work phone numbers.

Employees affected by the breach were told in an email their mobile phone numbers may have also been accessed if they had been entered into the directory

"As always, you should be aware of these risks and remain vigilant when it comes to unsolicited communications via email and telephone."

Staff were told no banking or financial information was affected in the breach.

Suelette Dreyfus, a researcher in cybersecurity and privacy at University of Melbourne, said while it did not appear highly personal or sensitive information had been stolen, the dataset as a whole could be useful for a more targeted attack.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-01/victorian-government-employee-directory-data-breach/10676932