Just how valuable are medical records?
McAfee recently confirmed what many have believed for some time — medical records are for sale on the black market.
The global computer security software company, in a report titled [link url=”http://www.mcafee.com/us/resources/reports/rp-health-warning.pdf” title=”Health Warning”], detailed some specific instances of medical records on the black market found during investigations. For example, one investigation turned up a database containing the personal medical data of 397,000 patients.
According to McAfee, the going rate for a single medical record can vary widely. The typical range is [link url=”https://securingtomorrow.mcafee.com/consumer/identity-protection/how-valuable-healthcare/” title=”$2.50 to $25 per record”]. Deep records, e.g. name, Social Security number, birth date, and account information, can go for $14 to $25 per record.
The lower range, down to $2.50 per record, targets more shallow single medical records. In bulk, this rate falls even further; McAfee referred to an instance of 40,000 medical records on sale for just $500.
#Cybercriminals are scouring for health records. The price they are willing to sell them for: https://t.co/V3VQsSpw7f via @brucesnell
— McAfee (@McAfee) November 3, 2016
Why is medical data being stolen?
Medical records can hold a wealth of personal information about individuals. When dealing with stolen medical information, criminals are often looking to hit the hacking “jackpot” and gain access to sensitive personal information. This would include things like social security numbers, account numbers, and/or usernames/passwords.
Malware problems plague the healthcare industry
According to McAfee, one reason that the healthcare industry is often targeted is the nature of the industry itself. That is, healthcare is a patient-first industry, so things like installing security patches or updating software can fall down the priority list. Hackers know this.
Malware is likely a large part of the problem. A [link url=”https://amuedge.com/healthcare-industry-struggles-malware-problems/” title=”recent report”] from SecurityScorecard revealed that malware infected 77 percent of the healthcare industry in the last year.
This hefty percentage placed healthcare ninth of all industries studied.
[relink url=”https://amuedge.com/healthcare-industry-struggles-malware-problems/” url2=”http://incyberdefense.com/opinion/conflict-data-governance-customer-privacy/”]
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