This week’s blog post for IPRO’s blog is about cybersecurity and data privacy concerns at healthcare organizations and the stakes involved. 

Go to just about any news site today and there is probably a new story about a data breach that costs a company millions of dollars.  Just in the past few weeks, we’ve seen Colonial Pipeline pay as much as $5 million in response to one ransomware attack (during which gas shortages caused long lines at the pumps) and meatpacker JBS USA paying a ransom equivalent to $11 million to another group of hackers in that case.  And that’s just one category of data breach affecting organizations today.  Failing to protect data from threats – internal as well as external – can also potentially cost companies millions in fines and litigation judgments and settlements.

Healthcare organizations are perhaps even more at risk as the data they track – protected health information (PHI) and electronic protected health information (ePHI) – is even more sensitive.  Not only that, the stakes are much higher – not just monetary, but potentially life threatening as patient lives at healthcare organizations are actually in jeopardy with some data breaches.

So, how much has PHI and ePHI grown in recent years? What levels of data breaches have we seen and what has the cost been?  And have any medical patients actually died as a result of data breaches by hackers?  You can find out on Ipro’s blog here.  It’s just one more click! 😉

BTW, IPRO has three white papers (which you can download here) to provide useful information for healthcare organizations for the many considerations they have regarding protection of PHI and ePHI.  In addition, you can also request a free ePHI assessment here (you can download a sample report here).  Your organization could save millions – or even something more valuable than that.

So, what do you think?  What is your organization doing to protect PHI and ePHI?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

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Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by my employer, my partners or my clients. eDiscovery Today is made available solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Today should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.