Privacy is on the minds of consumers and enterprises all over the world. The co-creator of Tor has recently announced how medical records are the new target for both hackers and law enforcement. While the anonymity software may be able to help reduce the number of data leaks, the battle is far from over.
Tor Can Protect Medical Records
Most people know the Tor software as a way to stay anonymous on the Internet, and increase overall privacy protection when surfing. At the same time, the anonymity software has often been associated with illegal activity on the deep web, which is a portion of the Internet not indexed by search engines.
But very few people are of how Tor can also be used to protect sensitive data, or that is what co-creator Paul Syverson envisions, at least. The technology that makes Tor work can be used in a variety of ways, but it would be of particular usefulness to fight identity theft. However, it will take some convincing as people are still not taking security precautions to heart, despite being warned about potential risks fifteen years ago.
There is a fine line between encrypting sensitive information for purposes of safety and being labeled as an institution that has something to hide. This is one of the reasons why hospitals and other healthcare institutions have not taken to encryption just yet. However, with the increasing number of medical records being leaked or stolen in the past few months, something has to give sooner or later.
Paul Syverson explained the situation as follows:
“In the era of mass online communication, anonymous browsing can be responsible browsing. You obviously wouldn’t want a hacker to access your medical records, after all. These are bad guys that use this, too, just like there are bad guys that use cell phones, hammers and lots of other things.”
Encryption has evolved a lot throughout the years, though, as it is the driving factor of secure online communication these days. Additionally, encryption is becoming the norm for online and mobile commerce. Albeit the healthcare industry is not warming up to the idea just yet, one NGO is developing a new site within the deep web for anonymous online drug testing, health services, and research questionnaires. However, the name of this NGO or platform was not revealed at the time of writing.
Source: Deep Dot Web
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