Infographic: Protecting Patient Records – the Risks and Costs of Data Loss

As National Cyber Security Awareness Month comes to a close, security software provider Safetica wants to remind healthcare professionals of the growing risks they face when handling a patient’s personal and financial records. Whether intentional or not, more than 200 data breaches involving individual records of at least 500 patients each—a total of approximately 100,000 records—took place last year in the U.S.  

 

Consider that the average cost to handle a data breach is $407 per compromised healthcare record, and it’s easy to see that a data breach could be catastrophic to a small business. Studies also suggest that one in three patients will fall victim to data loss this year. That kind of careless data security, especially in light of stricter HIPAA compliance requirements for small to midsize healthcare businesses coming in 2017, could leave many businesses facing lawsuits, million-dollar fines or even jail time.