My Health Record has been in operation for over five years, with nearly five million Australians having a record, and in this time there have been no security breaches to the system, despite recent claims of Medicare number hacks on the dark web.

A Department of Health spokeswoman has assured that just having a Medicare card number does not allow My Health Record information to be accessed or hacked, despite some misinformation to the contrary.

Additional information is required to authenticate consumers or doctors as users and provide them with access to records. A Medicare number, full name and date of birth can be used to search for a person’s Individual Healthcare Identifier (IHI) but this requires the use of conformant software and a National Authentication Service for Health (NASH) certificate.

The My Health Record has real time monitoring and surveillance, including a record of every access to ensure it is authorised, and identification and rapid response to suspicious activities.

Access to Medicare numbers through the Health Professional Online Services (HPOS) is not at all linked to access to My Health Records.

The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) has set up a Digital Health Cyber Security Centre that has responsibility for the ongoing security of the My Health Record system with robust controls in place to prevent a malicious attack and a program of continuous improvement to ensure that the security controls stay up-to-date with any emerging cyber threat.

Visit the My Health Record website

Excerpts from original article: Medicare number hack does not affect My Health Record: DoH. Pulse IT 10/7/17.