Headlines about hospital data breaches that expose thousands of medical records appear with alarming frequency. Yet even one breach can be devastating. A single breach at a Pennsylvania practice in the first half of 2016 exposed 87,000 patient records, and in 2015 a breach at a Los Angeles hospital exposed 4.5 million patient records.
Such attacks shouldn’t be surprising. The high dollar value each patient record fetches on the black market (CNBC says this is at least $60) creates a powerful incentive for hackers while protection is often weak.
