Healthcare

Data breaches cost the healthcare industry an estimated $5.6 billion annually. This isn’t surprising since 90% of healthcare organizations reported at least one data breach in the past 2 years – and 38% reported more than 5. We talked last week about the value of breached data, and how healthcare records can go for at least 10 times as much as credit card data on the black market. Just why is this?...

Endpoint security is more important than ever for healthcare organizations—and it’s much more difficult than ever, due in large part to clever intrusion tactics through endpoint devices. Increased use of tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices has given healthcare organizations’ staff more flexibility and freedom, but it’s also increased security risks. The stakes have never been higher, especially with ever-mounting privacy requirements. In fact, recent research indicates that the...

Jocelyn Samuels was named the Director of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in Jun 2014. In December of 2014, the OCR issued its first HIPAA-related settlement under its new Director, against Anchorage Community Mental Health Services (ACMHS) for a data breach affecting 2,743 individuals. The breach was tied to improper following of Security Rule policies and failure to address basic security principles such as patching and updating software. Although...

I recently wrote a post for HealthITSecurity on the “Top Tips for Keeping Patients’ Healthcare Data Protected.” With healthcare data the most valuable kind of data on the black market, and increasingly intricate regulations, healthcare IT has a heavy burden to protect patient data. The healthcare sector is now responsible for the most data breaches and is increasingly the target of attacks. It’s no wonder too, when a single healthcare...

Patrick Ouellette recently wrote about the importance of Why Healthcare CISOs Must Prioritize, Organize Threat Data, an article about how CISOs can best react to the high volume of risk reports. There are always new threats popping up, and not just in malware, and it’s up to the CISO to decide how best to allocate resources for the maximum benefit to data security. As discussed in the article, which...