"A Billion Medical Images Are Exposed Online, As Doctors Ignore Warnings"

Security researchers from the Germany-based security firm Greenbone Networks discovered the exposure of a billion medical images online. The exposure of these images is the result of hospitals, medical offices, and imaging centers using unprotected servers. The insecure servers expose patients' personal health information in addition to medical images, with almost half belonging to patients in the United States. Medical practitioners use the DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) standard to store, retrieve, and transmit medical images to other medical practices. DICOM images can be viewed using any free-to-use apps and are usually stored in a PACS server, which is a picture archiving and communications system. However, medical offices often overlook security, connecting the PACS server to the internet without a password. This article continues to discuss the exposure of over 1 billion medical images, the research behind this discovery, and how medical organizations have responded.

TechCrunch reports "A Billion Medical Images Are Exposed Online, As Doctors Ignore Warnings"