From a letter to the editor of by S.M. Mohamed Idris of The Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) in Malaysia:
[CAP] is distressed by the recent news that a group of hackers had hacked into the systems of both government and private hospitals and stolen the personal health data of tens of thousands of individuals – data which is then sold to pharmaceutical companies through information selling syndicates.
[..]
CAP suggests that:
- Agencies such as Cyber Forensics Intelligence Centre (CyberFIC), CyberSecurity Malaysia (CSM) and the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), need to nip this problem in the bud by tracking and stopping the hackers who steal this information;
- The companies, such as the pharmaceutical companies in this case, that buy this information should be charged with having committed a criminal offence by possessing personal data illegally;
- If there is no market for unlawfully obtained personal data then stealing the information becomes redundant; and
- MCMC, CyberFIC and CSM, as the responsible agencies, need to beef-up our cyber security immediately.
Read more on The Star.
Charging the pharmaceutical companies with receiving or purchasing stolen data? I like it.