Although 69 percent of data breaches are perpetrated by outsiders, for healthcare organizations, the majority of threats— 59 percent — are internal players, according to data from Verizon's Data Breach Investigation Report.
Verizon analyzed data from 41,686 security incidents and 2,013 data breaches that were provided by 73 data sources, both public and private entities, spanning 86 countries worldwide.
Five things to know about cybersecurity in the healthcare industry:
1. There were 466 security incidents, with 304 confirming data exposure.
2. The top three patterns for security breaches are miscellaneous errors, privilege misuse and web applications, which combined represent 81 percent of incidents within healthcare.
3. Internal threats are most common (59 percent), followed by external (42 percent) and partners (4 percent). Three percent of breaches are caused by multiple parties.
4. Hackers are most often motivated by financial reasons (83 percent). Other motivators include for fun (6 percent), convenience (3 percent), grudges (3 percent) and espionage (2 percent).
5. The data compromised is most often medical information (72 percent of breaches), followed by personal information (34 percent) and credentials (25 percent).
To read the complete report, click here.
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