The Real ID Card and Healthcare Cyberattacks
What you may not know about the Real ID card—which will soon be a national tracking system—and how cyberattacks against the healthcare system are affecting hospitals, doctors, and consumers.
The Real ID program—enacted in 2005 but postponed for years—will be law on May 7, 2025. What started as an Act designed to stop terrorists on airplanes after 9/11 will soon be a national tracking system. If you haven’t been following discussions about the pros and cons of this law, you may not realize that this law will enable the Federal government to monitor in real-time everything everyone does. Or, as stated by the Citizen’s Council for Health Freedom in 2017, it will give the government “control over all citizen identification, movement, and access to goods and services.” An upsetting thought, isn’t it?
Considering that the government needs only an inch to steal a mile, it’s easy to see why so many have been concerned for years about how forcing everyone to get a national ID card would affect the everyday lives of ordinary citizens. According to the article “Why Oppose the Real ID Act,” this will consolidate Americans’ personal information into a network of interlinking databases accessible to the federal government and bureaucrats throughout all states and US territories.
I suggest you watch this video to hear CCHF President Twila Brase voice her concerns about how much Americans will lose if the government begins to use this card to control more than our ability to fly or enter government buildings and military bases. Paraphrasing her comments, “If enough people get the card, the government will have the power to control all our movements. In time it could control our access to medical care, the ability to buy a gun, or register at a hotel.”
I wonder if America will eventually look like the TV show Person of Interest or Orwell’s classic 1984, which explored the consequences of mass surveillance and totalitarian regimentation of a society's population.
Cyberattacks Against Our Health Care System
Have you heard about the massive February 21, 2024 cyberattack on Change Healthcare? This company processes 15 billion claims a year, and reports were that a substantial portion of the people in America could have had some protected health information leaked as a result of this incident.
The article “America’s Health Care System Disabled By Hackers” explains that this attack cut off many healthcare organizations from the systems they rely on to transmit patients’ healthcare claims and get paid. Until then, I had no idea that 6 out of 10 healthcare organizations had experienced a ransomware attack in the past year, proving that the healthcare sector is under siege.
I learned how such an attack affected patients when my medical group got hacked in 2023. Their public notice played down the cyberattack by saying that “a security incident” caused disruption to their network system and that the network outage was caused “by unauthorized actors who gained access to the DMG network.” My upcoming appointment was canceled, but I got some first-hand feedback from my internist when I finally saw her.
She told me about how difficult and physically exhausting it was to treat patients when they had to go back to doing everything on paper without access to electronic records. Patient notes, prescription information, and follow-up appointments normally entered on the computer had to be handwritten and later added to the system. And there were concerns about making a mistake in a patient's vital information.
Cyberattacks Affect All of Us
Many friends have reported how their email addresses or computers have been hacked. Wondering how cyberattacks were affecting consumers in general, I found a good summary in the article “How the Rise in Cyberattacks Is Changing Consumer Behavior.”
When an online company or organization we are associated with is hacked, our Cybersecurity is at risk. More criminals have our Social Security or driver’s license number, birth date, and other data, which gives them the info they need to launch phishing attacks or other threats against us.
I can no longer count how many times my identity has been leaked since 2008, all from places I expected to be secure. I froze my credit seven years ago and may decide to do that again because I know my information is on the Dark Web. My latest incident happened in mid-July when Trinity Universal Insurance, a Secure Processing Center for all insurance companies, told me how sorry they were that my name and driver’s license were on some backup tapes that “went missing.” I was offered a year’s membership in Identity Defense Complete but passed on this offer because it meant putting all my information on yet another site. Instead, I opened an account with Equifax® when I learned I could easily put a new one-year fraud alert on my credit that would be sent to Experian® and TransUnion® Credit Bureaus. (Hard to do on the phone.)
My “security barriers” include Lifelock membership and carefully monitoring my credit card accounts. (My Capital One card helps with its “CreditWise” monitoring.) I create iron-clad passwords that would take three centuries to hack, according to Kaspersky Password Checker. I change my passwords periodically and never use the same password twice or save them to a browser (not recommended). I keep them in a paper “booklet” backed up to a flash drive.
In closing, a few more thoughts on Real ID from CCHF President Twila Brase:
“American lives have been made vulnerable by politicians. In violation of their oath and our constitutional rights, they have compromised our privacy, our personal safety, and our national security. In these dangerous times, I encourage you to fight for freedom by fighting for the right to be free of digital tracking and cyberattacks that put you in harm’s way. That includes Real ID. Do not get the federal REAL ID, the driver’s license with the star. It’s a national ID. Get a standard license.”
P.S. You don’t need a REAL ID if you don’t intend to fly or enter government buildings and military bases. It’s a personal choice. If you change your mind after May 7, 2025, you can get it any time at your local Driver Services facility.
Reader Feedback:
“Thanks so much! And we could have written your piece on Bob Newhart, word for word! We loved him and Johnny Carson. We were privileged to attend two of Newhart's performances, one in Fort Worth and one in Branson.” – Duane K.
“Your article on the Real ID was of interest. When I had to renew my license I had no choice on the matter as much as I knew at the time.” – Rose M.
“As always, thought provoking, useful and a bit alarming.” – George B.
First published as a Brabec Bulletin on September 5, 2024.
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