The
Identity Theft Resource Center reports show that compromised data stores from
healthcare organizations far outstrip other verticals this year. According to
figures updated last week, healthcare organizations have disclosed 119 breaches
so far this year, more than three times the 39 breaches suffered by the
financial services industry. Though many of these breaches aren’t necessarily
caused directly by unauthorized access or hacking of healthcare databases, some
experts believe that the high numbers are due to lax handling of how data is
stored and accessed within these databases. This atmosphere, along with the
extreme portability of healthcare data due to consumer devices and laptops and
increasing numbers of malicious insiders seeking to profit from electronic
medical records (EMRs) and other patient data, has formed a poisonous
combination within the industry. One of the biggest issues healthcare
organizations face in regards to database security is the issue of what happens
to data once it gets outside of the database. The patterns behind many of this
year’s biggest healthcare breaches seem to corroborate experts’ worries. Some
of the most frequent causes behind breaches in 2010 and in recent memory are
lost and stolen laptops as well as back-up tapes, hard drives, and other
portable media.
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