How common are healthcare-related security breaches?

Mar 28, 2016 | Healthcare, Security-GRC | 0 comments

Should you be concerned with information security in healthcare?

The Office of Civil Rights has ramped up HIPAA audits in 2016, with a 10% budget boost.

Some early findings in 2016 suggest they’re on the right path. The Identity Theft Resource Center has released a report of data breaches in the first 12 weeks of the year. The finding that pops out to us: 83.1% of all the data breached comes from the healthcare and medical sector. In total, about a third of the total breaches were in this industry, but the volume of data breached puts the focus deeply on healthcare.

More visibility

These increased breaches come at a time when more folks are paying attention.

We had to turn off our Google Alert for “data security breach.” There are too many to follow.

And official findings are becoming a scarlet letter. One company has even built a directory, a Yelp of healthcare, that connects HIPAA violations to real-world healthcare companies.

Would you trust a company that isn’t a good protector of your health information?

Is your Patient Health Information secure?

What to do?

The name of the game is pro-active.

If you wait for a breach, you’ve waited too long. If you have a security team, make sure your business is ready for an audit, and ready to face an attack attempt. (Hint: Insiders are more likely than outsiders to cause a data breach — policies and adherence to those policies matter.)

If your security team is too busy — or non-existent — we can help with a DIY kit or through our rent-a-CISO program.

But the most important thing is to protect the data that matters most.

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