Secure Healthcare Data: Protecting Sensitive Info From Breaches & Leaks - Essay Sample

Introduction

Private and sensitive data, regardless of the discipline or sector it is attributed to is always worth protection from breaches and leaks. In the healthcare sector, data can contain sensitive information on research, drug patents, patient information as well as corporate information on the concerned parties. Therefore, such data must be always kept safe and protected from intrusions by unauthorized individuals. In this regard, there are many security protocols put in place by both players in the private and the public sector that help healthcare practitioners protect sensitive information. Nonetheless, the ingenuity of criminals has always proved to be a problem and has resulted in several significant data breaches in the recent past.

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According to Davis (2019), healthcare data breaches are estimated to cost the taxpayer an estimated $4 billion in the fiscal year of 2019. The same article by Davis also indicates that the data breaches translate to $423 per each patient record that ends in the black market. Inherently, it is evident that such data breaches result in monetary losses to the health sector at large and individual healthcare institutions (Smith, 2016). The data leaks lead to the acquisition of sensitive information by criminals who end up selling them on the black market for scrupulous organizations that act upon them resulting in losses and compromises on different projects owned by the original possessors of the data. In the pharmaceutical sector, these may result in the stealing of important information on revolutionary drugs leading to loss of copyrights and patenting rights (HIPAA, 2018).

Between the years 2009 and 2018, the rate of data breaches has steadily increased through time (Singh, n.d.). With the evolution of technology and the more access to powerful software by criminals, it only seems that hackers will continue to outpace security personnel in illegal access to healthcare information. However, it is worth noting that this has had a great impact on how the healthcare sector now perceives the threat of such breaches (Armerding, 2018). One of the major impacts of these breaches is the increased investments made by the sector in incorporating IT security systems and protocols in their institutions. In the public sector, the government has reacted by enacting policies and setting up security departments solely responsible for the investigation of such crimes.

Conclusion

Conclusively, healthcare data breaches are detrimental to the lives of concerned people as well as the healthcare institutions subject to the intrusions. Consequently, it not only leads to monetary loss, but it also exposes both the practitioners and their clients to cases of identity theft and other criminal victimization scandals. Nevertheless, the breaches have resulted in the government taking a tighter approach to IT security within the healthcare sector thus resulting in better services.

References

Armerding, T. (2018, December 20). The 18 Biggest Data Breaches of the 21st Century. CSO Online. https://www.csoonline.com/article/2130877/the-biggest-data-breaches-of-the-21st-century.html

Davis, J. (2019, November 5). Data Breaches Will Cost Healthcare $4B in 2019, Threats Outpace Tech. HealthITSecurity. https://healthitsecurity.com/news/data-breaches-will-cost-healthcare-4b-in-2019-threats-outpace-tech

HIPAA. (2018, March 22). Healthcare Data Breach Statistics. HIPAA Journal. https://www.hipaajournal.com/healthcare-data-breach-statistics/

Singh, H. (n.d.). Top 10 Healthcare Data Breaches of All Time. Appknox - Mobile App Security Testing. https://www.appknox.com/blog/top-healthcare-data-breaches

Smith, T. T. (2016). Examining data privacy breaches in healthcare. Retrieved from: https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=3726&context=dissertations