Department of Homeland Security issues notice regarding Dentrix G5 ... what you need to know

In a first-of-its-kind notice, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has made Dentrix G5 users aware of a potential threat from hackers. A video posted on YouTube on April 24 showed how the software could be infiltrated from an outside source.

According to the Department of Homeland Security link, Dentrix was first notified of the problem on Oct. 15, 2012, and a subsequent patch was issued on Feb. 14, 2013.

In response, Henry Schein issued a statement about its patch for Dentrix G5 that was posted by the Department of Homeland Security.

While there is a concern with the fix that needs to be made, Dr. Lorne Lavine, founder and president of Dental Technology Consultants, believes G5 users should have no security concerns once the patch is installed and appropriate precautions have been taken.

"As anyone who writes software is aware, there is no such thing as perfect code or software that is 100% secure. Look at the thousands of programmers who worked on developing Windows, yet it still requires almost weekly patches to plug security holes,” Dr. Lavine said. “When Dentrix G5 was first released, they used a password system that, if discovered, could potentially allow someone with access to another Dentrix office to have access to that database. Dentrix was made aware of this concern and issued a permanent fix in February. It is my belief that while the risk to a Dentrix practice was small before this patch, Dentrix G5 users should have no concerns about the security of their database, assuming they are following accepted security protocols for their network, such as a firewall, antimalware software, and encryption of wireless networks."

For more information on the patch, visit the Dentrix site by clicking here.