Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Why Healthcare Data Breaches Are So Lucrative
Back in April, 2014, the FBI issued a Private Industry Notification (PIN) warning the healthcare sector that its vulnerability to attack remains high, primarily because it is a lucrative target for criminals. Why are healthcare data breaches so lucrative?
A Reuters report on the FBI PIN indicates numerous reasons:
- Healthcare data breaches are typically not detected as quickly as other data breaches (such as payment card information), and criminals have more time to use the data for profit. ($20 for health insurance credentials vs. $1 to $2 for US credit card numbers.)
- Criminals can use medical records to impersonate patients with diseases and obtain presc riptions for controlled substances.
- Identity theft and financial fraud are more complex, but very common, and very lucrative.
Clearly, it is essential that healthcare data breaches be top-of-mind for BI platform managers in the healthcare sector. They must do what they can to lower risk of data breaches occurring, to detect such breaches as quickly as possible, and to mitigate the damage done.
In an upcoming webinar, we will be exploring some of the ways you can mitigate the risks associated with breaches through proactive BI platform management, especially with regard to EHR integration considerations: