Healthcare Data Breaches on the Rise

Since the start of the year, over 92 million medical records have been affected by breaches of the healthcare industry. According to recent news in Forbes, these breaches can affect customers both financially and in a more personal way with the private medical history involved making them more vulnerable. The fraudster could actually receive medical treatment under the victim's identity in the end putting the victim at risk of later receiving wrong medical service based on someone else's health information. The possibilities of complications stemming from these breaches are endless.

According to the article, it used to be that the top cause for patient data loss was an employee losing a device or having it stolen, but more recently the medical information is being obtained through cyber attacks on major medical organizations including Anthem, Premera and Carefirst. Because financial services and retailers have become savvier about protecting customer data the cyber criminals are now targeting the healthcare industry. "In a recent FBI presentation, Kam [Rick Kam, president and cofounder of ID Experts] says that the agency said that it had seen health insurance information fetching a price of $60-$70 on the black market as opposed to less than a dollar for a Social Security Number." This should propel all of the healthcare industry to do all they can to make the protection of their customers' private information a top priority.

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