Though victims of medical record theft can face substantial out-of-pocket costs to resolve the theft, 89 percent of Americans do not list medical records in their top three types of personal data they are most concerned could be affected by a data breach, according to a Vormetric survey.
The top three concerns the survey's respondents reported include:
• Social Security numbers: 84 percent
• Credit card data: 73 percent
• Financial account information: 71 percent
"Healthcare data sets contain extremely detailed personal information, enough to not only apply for credit cards or loans, but also to generate huge sums from fraudulent medical charges. The public's lack of awareness of their potential exposure to this is troubling. Few seem to realize that having their medical data lost is much more dangerous to their financial health than a stolen credit card number and address," said Tina Stewart, vice president of marketing for Vormetric.