Healthcare data breaches are increasing exponentially year after year, and it doesn’t seem like they’re going to slow down any time soon. In order for IT healthcare professionals to take steps to safeguard their systems, it’s critical for them to understand why healthcare data holds so much value for hackers.
Healthcare data is valuable on the black market because it often contains all of an individual’s personally identifiable information, as opposed to a single marker that may be found in a financial breach. Often these attacks see hundreds of thousands of patient data compromised or stolen by those with malicious intent. According to a Trustwave report a healthcare record may be valued at up to $250 per record on the black market, compared to $5.40 for the next highest value record (a payment card). Because of the desirability of the data and the lure of monetary gain, it is important that this security threat is not underestimated by the Healthcare Industry IT professionals and that steps are taken to safeguard this data.
via Healthcare data: The new prize for hackers – Security Boulevard.
