Healthcare

As of September 29th, the number of overall breaches for 2015 reported to the ITRC has thus far slightly dipped below the 2014 figures, at 563 data breaches, but the number of breached records has already outstripped total 2014 figures, at over 155 million records exposed versus the 81.5 million exposed records in 2014. What’s even more surprising is that the healthcare industry no longer leads in terms of...

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently announced a new HIPAA settlement with a small health care provider, which re-enforces the importance of securing electronic health information (ePHI) on the endpoint.

When talking about the healthcare industry, we tend to lump all sectors together. While the data security regulations do not differentiate between subsections in the healthcare industry, there are different risks, challenges, and levels of preparedness amongst the sectors. According to new research out of Crown Records Management, the pharmaceutical sector is woefully under-prepared for current and future data security challenges.

We are more than half way into 2015, with enough time now to assess the impact data breaches have had on organizations this year. The reports so far indicate a growth in targeted attacks, and continued attacks on the healthcare industry.

Government Officials in the UK have been facing ongoing backlash over their ability to protect citizen information following a string of data breaches over the past few years. Most recently, East Sussex NHS Trust came under fire for misplacing a memory stick containing the personal data of 3,000 of its patients. The ICO has levied more than £5 million worth of civil monetary penalties against the public sector, with...