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Running head: DATA BREACHES IN U.S HEALTHCARE SECTOR

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The Surge in Data Breeches within the U.S Healthcare and Related Industry; what are the
Causes and Countermeasures?
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DATA BREACHES IN U.S HEALTHCARE SECTOR

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The Surge in Data Breeches within the U.S Healthcare and Related Industry; what are the
Causes and Countermeasures?
Executive Summary
The number of cyber-attacks has been on the rise in recent years, many organization
across various sectors have fallen victim to such breaches and in the process have lost billions
worth of sensitive information. The information that has been targeted in the heist includes
personal identification numbers, passwords, emails, security information, dates of birth, social
security details and much more. The impacts of such attacks have led to massive losses by the
affected entities; the costs are both first and third party losses resulting from expenses related to
support services, public relations campaigns, litigations, judicial proceeding, settlements and
many more. The impacts can also have a far-reaching effect and in extreme circumstances could
bring such entities to its knees stemming from the loss of customer trust and lost business, that
coupled by the enormous losses can result even in the closure of businesses. The leading causes
of such attacks are as a result of human factors, malicious attacks or system glitches. Strategies
that can be applied in control and prevention of such infiltrations includes segregating files, tools
for detecting intrusions, ensuring there is ample security to protect the sensitive material, and
other proactive strategies such as training and having ICT policies for more sustainable results.
The report will go deeper and look at the intricacies of data breaches in the U.S
healthcare sector. It will begin by focusing on the overall issue of cyber-attacks across various
industries before narrowing down to the healthcare industry by explicitly looking at the impact
that such incidents have on the affected organizations. It will then look at the various causes of
such attacks, look at industry procedures and strategies for control and prevention of the attacks,

DATA BREACHES IN U.S HEALTHCARE SECTOR

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and finally providing recommendations and a summary of the report by highlighting key areas in
the conclusion.
Introduction
There are reports of data breaches annually, and they vary in scale and occur across
different sectors namely in insurance, finance, manufacturing, social services, the health sector
and many more. The organizations affected are in both the private and public sector. During such
attacks, those organizations incur massive losses, according to estimates by the IBM Securities,
there more than a billion leaked credit card numbers, passwords, addresses, PINs and a lot of
proprietary information of various organizations as of 2014 (Kravitz, 2016). Cyber-attacks vary
in type; there are security incidences, privacy violation, skimming, and phishing, or data
breaches (Romanosky, 2016). A data breach is the intentional or inadvertent exposure of
personal information as a result of theft which can be by either printed or digital content. A
security incident, on the other hand, is where the IT infrastructure or systems are interfered with,
while phishing and skimming are committing of such a crime by any digital means (Romanosky,
2016). Finally, privacy violation is the illegal gathering and sharing of personal information
which has been obtained through theft from various sources (Romanosky, 2016).
In recent years we have witnessed several cyber-attacks across various industries. Some
of the largest ones include the JP Morgan Chase attack that happened in 2014 resulting in the
exposure of 76 million household accounts, in the same year there was another cyber-incident at
the Home Depot Inc. that led to the exposure of 56 million cards (Sjouwerman, 2014; Yadron,
2014). In 2015, the healthcare industry was also tremendously affected with the attacks on
Anthem Inc., Premera Blue Cross, and Excellus Health Plan which resulted in the loss of over 75
million, 11 million, and approximately 10 million records respectively (HIPAA, 2017).In the

DATA BREACHES IN U.S HEALTHCARE SECTOR

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global arena, cyber-attacks are also quite rampant. According to a 2017 joint report by Ponemon
Institute and IBM Security, the U.S and Canada had some of the most expensive data breaches at
$225 and $190 average cost per capita cost the data breach. While the lowest rates were those of
Brazil was $79 and at the bottom end was India at $64 per record (Ponemon Institute, 2017).
With such increased attacks, countries in the various corners of the world have become
more involved in fighting cyber-attacks. In the U.S the law enforcement agencies have been at
the forefront in investigating, preventing, and carrying out prosecutions of various perpetrators of
cybercrimes. The key organizations and agencies in that fight are the FBI, the Secret Service, and
the Department of Justice (Durkan and Cobb, 2015). A concerted effort by the organizations and
the law enforcement agencies and other key stakeholder has led to significant gains in the fight
against cyber-incidents and the prevention of such attacks. Data breaches in the U.S healthcare
sector have gone up tremendously in the recent years, and a lot still needs to be done to bring the
cases much lower.
Impact of Data Breaches
When assessing the impact that results from data breaches, one must consider the costs
that are incurred as a result of a given cyber event and look at the losses which are directly or
indirectly affecting the company. The direct losses are the costs that the organization receives as
a result of the breach. The organization will have to give out notifications to its customers; there
are a number of support initiatives which will also be provided, public relations campaigns will
be required to assure the customers and the public that the organization is proactively dealing
with the issue and so on (Romanosky, 2016). On the other hand, the third party losses incurred
by the organization revolve around the expenses incurred in litigations, judicial rulings, the
various lawsuits, and costs related to...


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