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1title: Chaos Computer Club warns of incalculable risks with the electronic health card
2date: 2008-03-16 00:00:00
3updated: 2009-04-18 19:12:41
4author: webmaster
5tags: update, pressemitteilung
6
7The introduction of the electronic health card (eCard) scheduled for 1st April 2008 cannot take place as planned. The Federal Government's great technical adventure will start with no working security infrastructure. Thus the controversial project with highly disputable data protection is once again jumping the gun.
8
9<!-- TEASER_END -->
10
11After Dirk Drees, the former Chief Executive of gematik, threw in the
12towel in December 2007 due to technical problems, Peter Bonerz took over
13the management of the electronic health card project that has fallen
14increasingly behind schedule.
15
16Even today gematik is producing no more than a theoretical concept for
17the project. At this year's Cebit exhibition Peter Bonerz had to admit
18that the planned network infrastructure cannot yet be brought online
19because the official call for tenders for the public key infrastructure
20(PKI) of the central backbone server network has still not been
21completed.
22
23“Gematik actually means business about what sounds like an April Fool” ,
24said Chaos Computer Club (CCC) spokesman Dirk Engling. “Huge amounts of
25data are going to be amassed without any security architecture being
26hot-tested so far. A field test of the communication systems could not
27be performed due to the lack of the underlying call for tenders. Any
28small software outfit would perform better without a budget of
29billions.”
30
31During past field tests problems emerged according to gematik in
32accessing the health cards and in operating the new electronic receipt
33(e-receipt) that has been advertised as the eCard's main application.
34The field tests originally planned with 100,000 cards have just been
35called off completely.
36
37At the same time, almost unnoticed by the general public, every citizen
38will have been assigned an unique number (Patient ID) for the health
39card. With this identifier every person and his health history can be
40tracked - even years later. Master data for all citizens, including
41their health insurance number, will be stored centrally in unencrypted
42form for use in authentication. Moreover, electronic patient records,
43which have to date been voluntary, will also be stored centrally, even
44though the Federal Government still maintains that control of sensitive
45data remains with every member of health insurance schemes.
46
47In addition, it is apparent from the health card technical documentation
48made available by the Department of Health that so-called added-value
49services are planned for introduction at a later date. The immense costs
50of introduction and running the infrastructure are to be recouped in
51future by this dubious business model.
52
53“It's not acceptable for patient data to be used as a commodity even if
54this data has been retained voluntarily. For a casualty patient it might
55be unpleasant to find a special offer for cheap hip replacements in the
56mail. The Federal Government has so far not explained exactly what these
57ominous value-added services are to be used for”, commented CCC
58spokesman Dirk Engling. Even the Federal Government's answer to a Free
59Democrats (FDP) parliamentary question on the electronic health card
60gave no clarification. \[1\]
61
62The CCC is warning against the introduction of electronic health cards
63as the necessary evaluation field tests have not been carried out as
64scheduled due to poor planning, even though from April onwards the
65experiment's incalculable risks and knock-on effects will be borne by
66patients and members of the medical profession. Anyway, data protection
67is mainly to be guaranteed by medical practices and clinics that will
68themselves gain no additional benefits from the eCard. On the contrary,
69doctors and pharmacists are the ones having to pay the costs of the ?
704.5 bn. project. At any rate, the Federal Government is no longer
71claiming medical benefits for the health card. Furthermore, there is no
72justification as to why billions are being spent on the project.
73
74### Links and additional information
75
76- \[1\] [FDP parliamentary question in the Bundestag on the technical
77 and legal problems regarding the introduction of the electronic
78 health
79 card](http://dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/16/083/1608334.pdf),
80 Official record 16/8334