March 27, 2019
You might be surprised at the level of health-care information breaches–and the dominant source of those breaches.
Nearly 200 million people in the U.S. have had their health information exposed in data breaches since 2010, according to federal data, as reported by Jessica Cohen in Modern Healthcare.
In 2018, 13 million people had their health data exposed in 366 breaches. That’s up 2 percent from the 359 breaches providers, health plans and their business associates reported in 2017.
There’s been a marked increase in e-mail breaches in recent years. Since 2017, e-mail has been the primary outlet through which health data is exposed. That year, there were 85 e-mail breaches—more than double the number reported in 2016—accounting for nearly one-quarter of all health-care breaches.
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More data is flowing electronically today than a few years ago, according to Mari Savickis, vice-president of federal affairs at the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, Cohen writes.
In previous years, health-care organizations and their business associates were more likely to attribute breaches to theft of paper records or laptops.
Many e-mail breaches stem from phishing, a tactic in which hackers obtain sensitive data by posing as a trusted entity, such as the recipient’s employer.
To bolster online security, Savickis suggested that health-care organizations appoint a dedicated chief information security officer and regularly educate staff on how to recognize potential threats.
