Study Finds Dramatic Rise In Cyberattacks Against Healthcare Providers.
While all doctors and hospitals are being forced to move into electronic records, I still enjoy the luxury of being a fully “paper” office.
While I still love the accuracy of my documentation with it… I can draw diagrams and pictures of what I do. I also have an invaluable appreciation for the PRIVACY it provides my patients. No one can hack in and get their personal information or private treatment records.
Bloomberg News (5/8, Pettypiece) reports that a rise in cyberattacks against providers “is costing the U.S. health-care system $6 billion a year as organized criminals who once targeted retailers and financial firms increasingly go after medical records, security researchers say.”
A study released Thursday by the Ponemon Institute found that criminal attacks against healthcare providers have more than doubled in the past five years. The average data breach costs a hospital $2.1 million, researchers found. Bloomberg adds that about half of the healthcare organizations surveyed by Ponemon “said they didn’t have sufficient technology to prevent or quickly detect a breach, or the personnel with the necessary technical expertise.”
NBC News (5/8, Weisbaum) reports that 91 percent “of the healthcare organizations surveyed had one data breach during the past two years; 39 percent experienced two to five breaches and 40 percent had more than five.” Meanwhile, cases of medical identity theft “have nearly doubled in the last five years, from 1.4 million adult victims to more than 2.3 million in 2014.
The Hill (5/8, Viebeck) reports the study found that criminal attacks “are now the leading cause of healthcare data breaches, replacing lost computer hardware for the first time.” The rise in cyberattacks comes “as medical providers continue an arduous transition to electronic health records.”
