A recent study by the Ponemon Institute found that the cost of a data breach to healthcare organizations is rising, climbing to $5.6 billion in annual expenses.
The report, which looked at patient privacy and data security, surveyed hospitals and clinics as well as integrated delivery systems.
Ninety percent of respondents said they had at least one data breach in the past two years, while 38 percent had more than five incidents of data compromise. All in all, criminal attacks on healthcare organizations have risen 100 percent.
The study found that the top cause of data breaches is human error, with 75 percent of cases attributed to lost or stolen devices containing sensitive information. Over the last five years, 65 percent of breaches reported were on laptops or mobile devices. Despite the clear risks, 88 percent of healthcare organizations still permit employees to connect to provider networks with their personal devices.
Perhaps due in part to the increase in bring-your-own-device usage in the healthcare industry, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-related data breaches have increased by 138 percent since 2009, encompassing almost 30 million compromised records, according to a study by health IT provider Redspin.
In 2013 there were over 300,00 cases of medical identity theft caused by lost or stolen data, a 19 percent increase over one year. According to the Ponemon Institue, 1.84 million adult-aged people will have their medical identity stolen at some point in their lives. Fifty-six percent of those surveyed who had been a victim of identity theft said it made them lose trust in their healthcare provider.
Protecting patient data in the cloud
As healthcare organizations move to the cloud, it makes sense to leverage its layered security protocols for better information security and data leakage prevention. One way the cloud can be employed to protect patient data is with fax over IP. FaxCore’s FoIP service with etherFAX makes it easy to send and store patient data over the Internet, with messages deliverable to either a traditional fax machine or an email address.
When patient data is transmitted, it is stored in a secure data center that utilizes encryption methods created by the National Security Agency. Once a fax has been received, its contents are stored on an organization's private FaxCore server, creating a searchable archive of records. With all of a healthcare provider's sensitive information stored in the cloud, there possibility of data on a laptop being lost or stolen is eliminated.
Enhance enterprise communication, collaboration and compliance efforts with a proven FoIP solution from FaxCore. Contact FaxCore today to learn more about their 'Partly-Cloudy' fax solutions.
