Today's Practice: Changing the Business of Medicine TP2018Q2DigitalEditionWeb | Page 79
More Than
Piece of Mind
Securing Your Healthcare Organization’s
Electronic Health Records
By Keith Moore
For seven years running 1 , the healthcare industry holds the
title of ‘Most Likely to be Hacked.’ A study by IBM and
the Ponemon Institute 2 found that stolen electronic health
records (EHRs) are once again the top prizes for hackers,
worth 2.5 times more than any other type of data.
According to Forbes Magazine 3 , the going rate for your
Social Security Number on the black market is only 10
cents, while your credit card number is worth about 25
cents. However, your patients EHRs can pull in an aston-
ishing hundreds or even thousands of dollars per record!
With cyberattacks on the rise, securing your medical
office’s EHRs is more important than ever to protecting
your practice and your reputation.
“As of 2016, almost 90
percent of healthcare
organizations have
suffered a cyberattack. ⁵
The smaller the medical
office, the easier its
digital defenses are
to breach.”
According to HealthIT Security 4 , the price EHRs fetch
has steadily increased the last two years, surpassing the cost
of the global average:
2016: [$355 per stolen record] [$158 global average]
2017: [$380 per stolen record] [$141 global average]
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