What’s the Deal With Hacked Medical Records

Ever wonder why anyone would want to steal your medical records? Wondering why hackers are targeting medical data instead of going after bank information and credit card details?

Medical records are being hacked, stolen, and sold on dark net markets as part of packages referred to as Fullz, or identity kits. These kits are used to help criminals' open fraud accounts, get credit cards, bank accounts, anything and everything you could imagine; and none of it's good. Private researcher James Scott co-authored a new report called, Your life, Repackaged and Resold: The Deep Web Exploitation of Health Sector Breach Victims. This report was made reality for the U.S. Senate by the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology.

The report tells of the deep web, and how criminals will use this deep web to buy and sell health information, along with other data. Right after a medical data hack, the information won't be seen for days, weeks, even months and years. Eventually it resurfaces in the form of fullz, or identity kits.

"So, it will look like basic short-form ID theft material, but eventually the electronic health record will surface as a 'fullz'; the slang term on the deep web for a complete long-form document that contains all of the intricacies of a person's health history, preferred pharmacy, literally everything," the report states. "What happens is the people who purchase fullz then go to another vendor on the deep web for what's called 'dox', the slang term for documentation, where they then proceed to have passports, drivers' licenses, social security cards, all these things that will help the counterfeit imitation of the victim. So you have electronic health record that will typically go for $20 apiece, and you'll spend a couple hundred dollars on 'doxs' to support that identity, and once it's an identity kit, you can sell it for $1,500 to $2,000."