4.4 million patient records were compromised in 117 healthcare data breaches in the third quarter of this year alone according to the Protenus Breach Barometer.
Justin Jett, Director of Audit and Compliance at Plixer:
“Data breaches in healthcare pose a serious risk not only for the organization but also for the patients. Should a hacker get this critical information, they can use it for insurance fraud which turns into a nightmare for the patient as there is no formal process for patients to correct their healthcare records and it could have serious impact if a patient needs a test or medicine. The insurance company could turn down such expenses if it looks like a patient has already had the test or medicine or has used up their allotment for the year. Many organizations take the stance that network and security teams perform vastly different roles, but as data is being siphoned from the network, it is the network team, working with the security team, that is best suited to detect the breach. Given that most data breaches occur by malicious actors taking data from the network in a low and slow way, most security teams are unable to detect the small amounts of data being taken from the network. IT professionals from both network and security teams should work together to make data breaches a relic of the past.”
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