As the digital age continues to evolve, businesses continue investing in critical data infrastructure. Companies hope to capture the latest efficiencies in order to attain compliance and find an operational advantage over the competition. And yet, while honest people continue to invest in their e-infrastructure with the best of intentions, criminals continue to find ways to penetrate security, swipe data, and make life miserable for their victims.

Recent media reports indicate that healthcare providers have become popular targets for data heist as the hijackers are now targeting medical records. The Ponemon Institute recently released a study showing that criminal attacks against health care providers have more than doubled in the last five years alone. Each attack brings costs to the victim organization, possibly including fines, notification efforts, damage mitigation, and data recovery work. The Ponemon study reported that an average data breach may cost healthcare providers as much as $2.1 million dollars per occurrence. Sadly, many of the healthcare institutions do not have sufficient controls in place to detect and prevent these breaches.

According to another report recently published, criminal attacks are now the leading cause of healthcare data breaches, replacing lost computer hardware. This scary trend is expected to endure as the nation continues to implement the electronic medical record requirement of the Affordable Healthcare Act.

State and federal law have been addressing the problem by adopting laws that denote security requirements and response steps, should an attack be successful. The onus is clearly on the providers to do everything possible to prevent these invasions and to aid in recovery once they occur. If you believe your organization might be at risk, or if you have questions about compliance, please contact us today.