Healthcare Data Breach Costs in the Industry Could Go Up to $4 Billion in 2019

A new survey was done to know the expense connected with healthcare data breaches, the magnitude of the healthcare community attacked, and what proportion of the attacks become successful.

The Black Book Market Research performed the survey on 2,876 security specialists at 733 healthcare organizations from Q4 of 2018 up to Q4 of 2019. Participants gave their insights on cybersecurity to determine vulnerabilities and security holes and know why plenty of these cyberattacks are successful.

As per 96% of surveyed IT specialists, cybercriminals are going quicker than medical organizations, which is not unusual since 93% of healthcare providers said having suffered a data breach since the third quarter of 2016. The report declared that 57% of establishments had suffered greater than five data breaches during that length of time. Greater than 50% of the data breaches that healthcare companies reported were due to hacks and outside threat actor attacks.

The healthcare market is the focus of attacks simply because medical centers and insurance providers maintain substantial volumes of sensitive and invaluable information and there are typically security gaps that could be very easily exploited. Since the possibility of attack is very high, the industry continues to be very predisposed to data breaches.

There is a substantial cost related to these healthcare market attacks. As per the report, the expenses as a consequence of data breaches at healthcare providers in 2019 was $423 for each record. The report states that, based upon the current number of data breaches, the expenditure of the healthcare sector will be up to $4 billion by year-end. Considering the recent developments and the yearly rise in healthcare data breaches, that amount is possible to be drastically increased in 2020.

The survey proved that a primary explanation of why the healthcare market is at risk is budget restrictions. Outdated systems and gadgets continue to be commonly utilized in the healthcare market, yet the cost of upgrading those systems is very difficult to explain when the funds do not go up with income.

Overall, money put in in cybersecurity for 2020 is intended to be raised to approximately 6% of total IT finances at hospital systems, although smaller practices had a reduction in investment in cybersecurity, specifically at doctor organizations where merely 1% of the 2020 IT finances are going to be expended on cybersecurity. 90% of hospital associates surveyed mentioned their cybersecurity funds hadn’t changed ever since 2016.

Spending on cybersecurity options is typically acquired blindly. 33 % of surveyed hospital officers mentioned they opted for cybersecurity solutions without considerable idea or discernment. 92% of decisions on security products or solutions since 2016 were taken by C-level professionals without associating department supervisors and end-users in the buying decision. Just 4% of institutions mentioned they had a directing committee to help examine the result of finances in cybersecurity.

Numerous healthcare institutions are likewise functioning with no dependable security officer. Merely 21% stated they had a specialized security manager and only 6% said that person was the Chief Information Security Officer. At doctor groups having greater than 10 physicians, just 1.5% mentioned they had a specialized CISO. This is to some extent a result of a scarcity of experienced staff. 21% of healthcare establishments reported they needed to outsource the job and are making use of cyber security-as-a-service as a short-term resolution.

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Christine Garcia is the staff writer on Calculated HIPAA. Christine has several years experience in writing about healthcare sector issues with a focus on the compliance and cybersecurity issues. Christine has developed in-depth knowledge of HIPAA regulations. You can contact Christine at [email protected]. You can follow Christine on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ChrisCalHIPAA