On the (health) record.

• Position: HEALTH RECORDS - Brief article

In April, Eastern European hackers breached a computer server in Utah and stole personal records for 780,000 people, including the Social Security numbers for 280,000 of them. Utah's Department of Health reported the victims included recipients of Medicaid and a healthcare program for low-income children. The state determined that a weak password allowed the hackers to bypass several layers of security that had been put in place after moving the data to a new server.

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Security experts say health and insurance records have become a target for hackers because personal information, such as that stored by the Utah's Department of Health, fetch a higher price on the black market than a single credit card record. Child records are especially valuable because their lack of a credit report or bank account makes it difficult to monitor them for identity theft.

Utah's Department of Health...