Hospitals and medical centers face a panoply of threats and challenges around data security, yet the healthcare field has not yet responded as quickly as others, according to chief information security officers (CISOs) and others close to such institutions.

“On the black market, if you will, healthcare information is worth multiples of financial information because in order to do healthcare, I need to know a lot more than just your financial situation and data,” says George McCulloch, executive vice president of professional development and membership for the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), which has created an offshoot called the Association of Executives in Healthcare Information Security to focus on such issues. “There’s a lot more opportunity for fraud. The clinical information gives me background on you. I know billing, I know clinical data. It’s a target-rich environment.”