• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Ponemon study identifies criminal attacks as leading cause of data breaches

HIM-HIPAA Insider, July 20, 2015

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to HIM-HIPAA Insider!

Criminal attacks on the healthcare industry have increased 125% since 2010, and are now the leading cause of data breaches at healthcare organizations, according to the results of a study released by the Ponemon Institute in May 2015. At the same time, the study says many hospitals and business associates (BA) are unprepared and cannot ensure patients’ privacy against these attacks.

The Fifth Annual Benchmark Study on Privacy & Security of Healthcare, sponsored by ID Experts®, estimates the net financial loss to the industry each year from data breaches and identity theft is $6.1 billion. Hospitals and other covered entities (CE) that participated in the study reported spending more than $2.1 million on average to deal with a single breach, while BAs reported an average cost of more than $1 million.

The study was based on data from information security officers, IT directors, compliance officers, attorneys in some cases, medical records managers, and other administrators at 90 CEs and 88 BAs. As many as 20 separate interviews were conducted with each CE and BA involved in the study.

Continue reading “Ponemon study identifies criminal attacks as leading cause of data breaches” on the HCPro website. This article originally appeared in the July issue of Briefings on HIPAA.

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to HIM-HIPAA Insider!

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive