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] TODAY’S PRA C T I C E: C HA NGI NG T HE BUS I NES S OF M EDICINE 78