Rising numbers and costs of data breaches

Posted on January 28, 2010 by Vadim Schick

There is little doubt that the healthcare industry must prepare for a growing number of - and expanding costs associated with - data breaches, particularly for breaches of protected health information.  Here are just a few notable reports on this subject:

  • Infosecurity.com reported on a striking increase in attempts to hack into healthcare organizations, while the rate of hacking in other economic sectors remained flat:  "the last quarter of [2009] saw an average of 13 400 attempts to hack healthcare organizations, compared to an average of 6,500 in the first nine months."  According to researchers at SecureWorks, which produced the graph above, healthcare organizations are particularly vulnerable to such attacks because they "have to provide access to many external networks and web applications so as to stay connected with their patients, employees, insurers and business partners. This increases their risk to cyber attacks."
  • Cnet News reported on similar findings by the Ponemon Institute, whose survey concluded that "Data breaches at U.S. companies attributed to malicious attacks and botnets doubled from 2008 to 2009 and cost substantially more than breaches caused by human negligence or system glitches."  The cost per compromised record involving a criminal act averaged $215, about 40% higher than breaches from negligence and 30% higher than those from glitches, the Ponemon survey found.

 

There are also a couple of examples of individual healthcare organizations suffering from increasing costs associated with data breaches:
 

  • According to Chattanooga Times Free Press (via iHealthBeat), BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee announced that it has spent more than $7 million to respond to a security breach resulting from 57 hard drives having been stolen from its training facility, which may have compromised personal and health data of up to 500,000 members.  $7 million tab does not appear to be the end of it:

The insurer has notified 220,000 BlueCross members about the data theft. The company also is offering no-cost credit-monitoring services for affected members. In addition, BlueCross is working to notify attorneys general in 32 states about the breach [pursuant to the HITECH Act].   <...>

BlueCross officials said 20,500 members already have signed up for the no-cost credit-monitoring services. In addition, the company has hired more than 700 contract and BlueCross employees to help determine what data the hard drives contained. The insurer said it might need to spend significantly more money to evaluate the missing data and provide additional identity protection services.

  • Considering the experience of BCBS of Tennessee, the costs associated with HealthNet's infamous data breach must be even higher. On top of providing two years of free credit-monitoring for hundreds of thousands of affected members, HealthNet is being sued by the state of Connecticut for HIPAA violations and noncompliance with HealthNet's own security policies by failing to encrypt the sensitive data.  The missing hard drive contained "27.7 million scanned pages of more than 120 different types of documents, including insurance claim forms, membership forms, appeals and grievances, correspondence and medical records."  Further complicating HealthNet's situation is the fact that the company waited for six months to inform the affected customers of the possible breach.

"Healthcare hacks on the rise," Inforsecurity.com (January 26, 2010).

"Survey: Data breaches from malicious attacks doubled last year," cnet News (January 25, 2010).

"Tab for Response to Data Breach Hits $7 Million for BCBS of Tennessee," IHealthBeat (January 26, 2010).

"AG files suit in health data privacy breach," theday.com (January 13, 2010).

 

 
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FTC Issues Final Breach Notification Rule for Electronic Health Information

Posted on August 17, 2009 by Steve Fox and Vadim Schick

Pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued the final rule regarding notification requirements for breaches of electronic health information by vendors of personal health records and certain affiliated entities:

The rule applies to both vendors of personal health records – which provide online repositories that people can use to keep track of their health information – and entities that offer third-party applications for personal health records. These applications could include, for example, devices such as blood pressure cuffs or pedometers whose readings consumers can upload into their personal health records. Consumers may benefit by using these innovations, but only if they are confident that their health information is secure and confidential.

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The Final Rule requires vendors of personal health records and related entities to notify consumers following a breach involving unsecured information. In addition, if a service provider to one of these entities has a breach, it must notify the entity, which in turn must notify consumers. The Final Rule also specifies the timing, method, and content of notification, and in the case of certain breaches involving 500 or more people, requires notice to the media. Entities covered by the rule must notify the FTC, and they may use a standard form, which can be found along with additional information about the rule at www.ftc.gov/healthbreach.

You can find the full text of the rule here.

"FTC Issues Final Breach Notification Rule for Electronic Health Information," FTC Press Release (August 17, 2009).

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This just in: New HHS guidance about securing protected information

Posted on April 17, 2009 by Steve Fox and Vadim Schick

From HHS:

On April 17, 2009, HHS issued guidance specifying the technologies and methodologies that render protected health information unusable, unreadable, or indecipherable to unauthorized individuals, as required by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act passed as part of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). This guidance was developed through a joint effort by OCR, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

This guidance relates to two forthcoming breach notification regulations – one to be issued by HHS for covered entities and their business associates under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) (Sec. 13402 of HITECH) and one to be issued by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for vendors of personal health records and other non-HIPAA covered entities (Sec. 13407 of HITECH). HITECH requires these regulations to be published within 180 days of enactment. If the entities subject to the regulations apply the technologies and methodologies specified in the guidance to secure information, they will not be required to provide the notifications required by the regulations in the event the information is breached.

The Guidance can be viewed (in PDF) here.

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