Recent Reports Confirm Continuing Vulnerability Of Healthcare Industry To Cyber Issues

There seems to be a new scientific study published every day—like this one that alleges that eating cheese every day might actually be healthy. Understandably, many of these studies fly under the radar — but two recently published reports regarding cybersecurity and health care should not. These two reports show that the healthcare industry in particular is continuing to struggle with cybersecurity issues. Understanding the vulnerabilities revealed by these studies is important to healthcare organizations attempting to reduce their cybersecurity risks and legal liabilities.

The Protected Health Information Data Breach Report, published by Verizon, reveals that a majority of data beach incidents within the healthcare industry involve insiders. This may come as a surprise to some who underestimate the potential risks from insider threats.  The report suggests that almost half of all internal threats are derived from intentional misuse of protected health information.