The latest report released by Accenture finds that one in eight individuals in England has had their medical information compromised by hackers.
Accenture polled 1,000 consumers in England as part of their 2017 Healthcare Cybersecurity and Digital Trust Research study. It found 13% of respondents had suffered medical data loss, with chemists (35%) the most common breach victim, followed by hospitals (29%), urgent care clinics (21%), and doctors’ offices (19%).
Fraud was the overwhelming reason for the data theft, city by 82% of breached respondents. The main crimes committed with the fraudulent information includes falsely filling prescriptions (42%), fraudulently receiving medical care (35%), and falsely billing for care (25%).
While England may be known for its impressive healthcare system, in terms of data security, the healthcare system has a lot of work to do. Unlike credit card information that has a relatively low shelf life, medical data cannot be replaced, meaning it can stay with you for forever.
Every time access is provided to healthcare data, the potential for loss of privacy & integrity increases. With that being said, healthcare organizations need to embrace state-of-the-art data security solutions and meet security & compliance requirements like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in order to avoid being the next victim of a large-scale attack.
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