Yes, you read that correctly. In 2014 medical records were worth over 10 times the value of credit cards. After several massive breaches and the loss of 100s of millions of credit cards, which were placed for sale on the dark net, the price of stolen credit card data plummeted to less than a dollar. However, medical records can be worth up to $500 dollars per record. You could argue the average average price for a stolen credit card record is $1 and the average price for a stolen medical record is $100, therefore medical records are only worth 100 times as much. Does it really matter? Thieves want your medical records 100 times more than credit card information. Plus, the credit cards have or are moving to chips, which reduces hackers abilities and desire to steal the card information.
Medical records allow criminals to setup new identities using your information. This can cause you massive headaches and financial costs to stop and recover from the damages they cause. On average it costs over $18,000 to recover from identity theft. So, it’s not a simple, enjoyable or inexpensive experience and is obviously best to avoid if at all possible.
Take Away:
- Be aware your medical records are very valuable to cyber criminals.
- Ask your healthcare providers, family physician, dentist, optometrist, dermatologist, therapists, counselors, clinics and hospitals if they are HIPAA compliant the next time your in their facility. They should have performed an annual risk assessment, have HIPAA policies and procedures, and annual HIPAA training at a minimum.
- It’s your records and lively hood, you should expect your healthcare providers to protect it.
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