Hospitals and health systems are concerned about safeguarding their own systems from data breaches, but providers are not the only ones that hold the keys to health data. Third party vendors are also susceptible to breaches, and U.S. companies are becoming increasingly concerned about the vulnerability of their outside partners.
Here are five things to know from the "Data Risk in the Third Party Ecosystem" survey conducted by the Ponemon Institute and requested by BuckleySander and Treliant Risk Advisors.
1. Of the survey respondents, 37 percent said they did not believe their third-party vendors would inform them of a data breach involving sensitive information.
2. More survey respondents (73 percent) feared a fourth party vendor would not notify them of a breach. A fourth-party vendor provides indirect service, often this type of vendor is hired by a third-party vendor.
3. Nearly half of respondents (49 percent) reported their organization experienced a data breach caused by an outside vendor, but 16 percent of respondents were unsure if this had happened.
4. Nearly three-quarters of respondents (73 percent) said cybersecurity incidents related to vendors are increasing.
5. Just 41 percent of respondents were confident their vendors have proper data safeguards and security policies in place for data breach response.