Medical records as a treasure trove for cybercrooks

The healthcare industry has become a treasure trove of data worth more than that held by the financial sector. The industry has become a target because information held by healthcare providers/insurers is of greater depth, thus providing greater scope for further fraud.

Stolen medical records are now fetching five times as much as credit card numbers. This price difference is the result of how easy it is for legitimate card users to cancel a credit card or to resolve an issue regarding misuse. Resolving problems that arise from a stolen medical record is much more challenging. Of particular concern is the theft of children's medical records. They hold special value as belonging to individuals with clean credit history.

Anthem, the second largest US health insurer, was attacked earlier in 2015. The result of the attack was the introduction of 37.5 million medical records to the online black market. The information leaked included names, birthdays, medical IDs/social security numbers, street addresses, email addresses and employment information and including income data.

Healthcare organizations such as insurers, hospitals and even large national healthcare providers such as the UK's NHS are several steps behind the hackers - many institutions are only now slowly awakening to the new reality that the information they have been entrusted with holds monetary value and is now more accessible to criminals.