Just after this Editor rhapsodized that one of the unrecognized (except here) wins for Apple’s new iPhone 6 in healthcare will be to give the docs what they want–larger screens–is this sobering stat from Forrester. Only 59 percent of healthcare employees use full-disk encryption or file-level encryption on mHealth computing devices used at work. Yes, here is another hole in the data security dike that needs plugging, because Forrester also cites that 80 percent of data breaches relate to lost or stolen devices. (What, not mulch?) Author Chris Sherman also quoted street prices for health records to The Wall Street Journal’s CIO Journal blog (subscription required): $20 for one health record to $500 for a patient’s complete record. He recommends greater use of encryption and penalties for non-compliance with safe computing. FierceMobileHealthcare, iHealthBeat.
Previously in TTA on data breaches: Data breaches may cost healthcare organizations $5.6 bn annually: Ponemon; Risky hospital business: happy device hacking, insider data breaches; The drip of data breaches now a flood: 4.5 million records hacked–update; Data breaches and ‘hackermania’ running wild; ‘Hackermania running wild,’ part 2
Incredible figures but it is not just healthcare employees, the issue is across all users. How many of us do not have some form of Anti- Virus protection on our computer? Probably everyone has some form but for mobile users seem to think they are safe. I was at a safety convention for mobile a few months back and the forecast does not look good for mobile as all those bad people out there cannot believe we are leaving bank details, passwords etc on our mobiles and no protection. MDM (Mobile Device Management) is cheap and safe and some platforms are better than others, but without a big media story the take up on MDM is slow. I am sure we will hear of some horror stories soon. Simple MDM solutions live Soti and Airwatch allow you to wipe data remotely and depending on the device, do much more.