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Delving Into Google Health's Privacy Concerns
SecureThroughObscure writes "Security researcher Robert 'RSnake' Hansen discusses numerous concerns with Google's new Google Health application, which aims to integrate user's medical records online. We discussed Google Health's opening to the public earlier this week. RSnake mentions that Google has found a loophole allowing them to provide this service without having to follow HIPAA regulations, which, combined with Google's track record of having numerous flaws leading to private information disclosure, draws serious concern. Security researcher Nate McFeters of ZDNet's Zero-Day Security Blog also commented on the article, mentioning several past vulnerabilities: ownership of content issues, Google Docs theft, a cross-domain hole, Google XSS, and a Google Picasa protocol handler issue leading to the theft of user images. He and fellow researcher Billy Rios disclosed these issues to Google, including the ability to steal GMail contact list information. McFeters says it's likely that similar unpatched bugs would allow an attacker to view medical records if a user was also using Google Health. Both McFeters and Hansen tend to agree that Google's vulnerability disclosure/notification is non-existent and really needs to be improved. Currently, Google does not report vulnerabilities it has fixed to its user base, for the obvious reason of trying to hide the fact that user data could have been stolen."
Well, not so much a loophole as HIPAA was not designed to protect data at healthcare record storage companies chosen by the patient. I don't think google "found" this as it has always been known to all of the healthcare community (at least security professionals). You are only covered by HIPAA if you are a "Covered Entity" (CE) which includes health plans (insurance), healthcare providers (doctors) or a healthcare clearinghouse (converts non-standard healthcare data into standardized healthcare formats like X12 format).
If Google or any healthcare records storage comapany is being used by a CE and has a contract with that CE, they are a Business Associate. BAs of CEs are subject to the HIPAA Security Rule (the section of HIPAA that is in question and largely referred to about protecting healthcare data).