"COVID Tests May Leak Personal Data"

More than 14 million PCR tests were performed in Sweden last year. Researchers at Umeå University have discovered the exposure of personal data by a private company that handles test certificates for major cities in Sweden, potentially affecting thousands of people. The private company was found to have a critical security weakness that could allow unauthorized individuals to access personal information such as names, Social Security numbers, test results, and more. The researchers were able to access such information by forcing a server to run in an unexpected state. Following the discovery of the problem, they disclosed it to the company, which then fixed the weakness within 24 hours and ensured that no one else had found and exploited it. According to the company, it was able to verify that no data or personal information had been leaked. Security problems have two main elements, with the first being data leakage and the second being the infiltration into a system and the manipulation of data by an external actor. It is essential to consider security at an early stage in the development of a system and to allow a third party to evaluate the system in order to minimize data leakage and other attacks. The researchers are developing software tools capable of automatically detecting weaknesses to help prevent data leakage and minimize the risks of attacks. One of the goals of the automated tools is to reduce the time and need for computational resources. This article continues to discuss the discovery of a critical weakness in the handling of COVID tests, how the issue was addressed, the vulnerability of health-related data to exposure, the importance of designing systems from a security perspective at an early stage, and the automated tools being developed by researchers at Umeå University to help detect security weaknesses in systems. 

Umeå University reports "COVID Tests May Leak Personal Data"