Healthcare tops data breach list in study

A study, carried out by Egress Software Technologies, has found that healthcare organisations were found to consistently top the list for data breach incidents.

In total, healthcare organisations suffered 2,447 incidents and accounted for 43 percent of all reported incidents in the time period between January 2013 and December 2016. Additionally, the number of incidents experienced a 20 per cent increase, from 184 incidents in the last quarter of 2014, to 221 in the last quarter of 2016.

While healthcare had the highest volume of incidents, others are increasing more rapidly. Across all sectors, the total number of security incidents reported has increased by 32 per cent since 2014.

Tony Pepper, CEO and co-founder of Egress Software Technologies, said: “Following the WannaCry exploit, the vulnerability of the healthcare industry, and the critical importance of improving its cybersecurity, has come into sharp focus. While it’s clear there is a security problem in healthcare, these figures show that it is as much about internal activity as external threat.

“There’s no doubt that someone inadvertently emailing a spreadsheet containing sensitive patient details to the wrong person isn’t as good a headline as a ransomware attack, but that does not diminish the threat it poses.”

The data, received from the Information Commissioner's office, also showed that human error accounted for almost half of these incidents across every sector.