The Risk On Your Wrist: Are Hackers Targeting Your Wearables Data?
by Donal Power, ReadWrite.com
Sensitive health data is being increasingly targeted by hackers just when health and fitness wearables – like the one on your wrist now – are exponentially increasing the pool of data for the stealing.
As reported by eWeek.com, a new study by U.S. law firm BakerHostetler revealed that hacking has over taken human error as the leading cause of security incidents. The report analyzed data from over 300 data security incidents the firm advised on.
Malware, phishing and hacking incidents comprised 31% of data security incidents in 2015, replacing human error as the top incident cause. And the leading industry targeted was healthcare (23%), followed by financial services (18%) and education (16%).
“Health care organizations are in the business of taking care of patients or supporting patient care in some fashion,” said Lynn Sessions, privacy and data protection partner with BakerHostetler. “They have not traditionally needed the level of data security that is required today. You also hear about more health care breaches because HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) requires notification, and media release with a low threshold.”
With the rapid proliferation of health and fitness wearables comes the generation of an exponentially increasing amount of health-related data. Simultaneously, concerns are increasing that current data management and security among both private and public organizations are woefully ill-prepared …
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Tags: Data Breach, Medical Issues, Medical Privacy, Smartphones, Wearables