The Fifth Annual Benchmark Study on Privacy & Security of Healthcare Data, by the Ponemon Institute and ID Experts was announced and we wanted to share some interesting findings. For the first time, Covered Entities and Business Associates were surveyed, revealing the differences and similarities these organizations face when protecting healthcare data. The results indicate that Business Associates are unprepared.

Key findings include:

• Criminal attacks are up 125 percent since 2010 and are now the leading cause of data breach.
• 65 percent of covered entities and 87 percent of BAs experienced electronic information-based security incidents over the past two years.
• 54 percent of healthcare organizations experienced paper-based security incidents; 41 percent of BAs experienced them.
• One third of respondents don¹t have an incident response process in place. (31 percent of CEs, 35 percent of BAs.)

According to the FBI, criminals are targeting the information-rich healthcare sector because individuals* personal information, credit information, and protected health information (PHI) are accessible in one place, which translates into a high return when monetized and sold.

The Fifth Annual Study on Privacy & Security of Healthcare Data can be downloaded at: www2.idexpertscorp.com/ponemon.

* Source: blog post written by Doug Pollack at ID Experts: https://www2.idexpertscorp.com/blog/single/fbi-discusses-cyber-threats-to-healthcare-data