The Surgeons of Lake County revealed that hackers had infiltrated a server where emails and EHR were stored. However, unlike other data breach incidents the hacker encrypted the data andopenly announced the theft posting a ransom note demanding a certain sum for the password. While the doctors turned off the server and notified the authorities about the incident, they lost access to the records which were encrypted by hackers.

This incident spotted by a blogger in the federal database of health-related breaches, brings to light a disturbing possibility exploited by cybercriminals, as the healthcare industry is quickly shifting to digital records. Another unsettling fact about this incident is the use of sophisticated techniques by attackers. Their choice of tactics and their use of encryption clearly reveal a high level of focus and expertise proving the attack to be highly targeted.

Medical-data blackmail is now a major threat to healthcare entities considering the number of practices moving to digital data. With electronic health records on the rise, such types of cybercrime are only bound to increase.

However, this is not the first incident involving medical-data blackmail. In 2008, Express Scripts’ manager received a threat. The company received personal details of 75 of its members including their SSNs, prescription records etc., and demanded an unspecified sum. But the company refused to pay the amount and instead notified its 700,000 customers that their personal information may have been exposed. Prior to this, in 2004, healthcare facilities were criticized for outsourcing their transcription jobs as many hospitals in California were blackmailed by their own workers in the outsourced countries.

The rise in medical identity theft could be attributed to several factors, one of which could be the cost of healthcare and the lack of insurance for millions of people. Health information exchanges are also giving way to a number of security and privacy threats. While there are numerous benefits to digitizing health records, there is this flipside too. However, safeguarding health information should be of top priority to all healthcare entities. And one meaningful way they can do this is by adopting a comprehensive security solution like SecureGRCwhich can lift the burden off their shoulders and help them monitor and manage EHR efficiently.

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