Mitigating Healthcare's Most Common Types Of Security Breaches

In simple terms, a data breach is a security incident where a company's sensitive information is accessed without authorization. However, a data breach is more complex than just a leak or an exposure of sensitive data. The first step of a data breach is usually a targeted attack, with the attacker often seeking a specific data set which could offer financial benefits.

Typically, this is confidential financial information, such as account numbers, transactions histories, and various types of passwords. Personal data is often sought after by identity frauds, while medical records fetch large sums on the black market. Health insurance companies are prime targets for data breaches because they hold both confidential medical and financial data. Health practitioners are also targeted by cybercriminals because they have the same information on file. Smaller practices can run on legacy systems with fewer personnel, and security concerns do not take priority over patient care.

Ransomware attacks, unpatched vulnerabilities, and internal threat actors can all cause a data breach that exposes patient information but using authentication to validate login credentials can reduce the chances of a breach.