Most Small Healthcare Practices Hacked In The Past 12 Months

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.darkreading.com/database-security/167901020/security/news/232601045/most-small-healthcare-practices-hacked-in-the-past-12-months.html

By Kelly Jackson Higgins
Dark Reading
Feb 16, 2012

If you were wondering how safe your medical records are at your doctor's 
office, then this might make you sick: Ninety-one percent of small 
healthcare practices in North America say they have suffered a data 
breach in the past 12 months.

The survey, conducted by the Ponemon Institute and commissioned by 
MegaPath, queried more than 700 IT and administrative personnel in 
healthcare organizations of no more than 250 employees.

Among the findings: Only 31 percent say their management considers data 
security and privacy a top priority, and 29 percent say their breaches 
resulted in medical identity theft. "Cybercriminals are hunting for 
medical records," said Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of Ponemon 
Institute. "The most serious issue is just the complacency small 
healthcare providers seem to exhibit with respect to securing patient 
records."

Around 70 percent say their organizations don't have -- or they don't 
know if they have -- enough budget to meet risk management, compliance, 
and governance requirements. In more than one-third of the practices, 
there's no one responsible for overall patient data protection. And 
budgets are tight: About half say that less than 10 percent of their IT 
budget goes to data security tools.

[...]


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