Report: Data breaches are escalating

The frequency, severity and impact of data breaches are escalating with the looming threats of organized crime, corporate espionage and cyberterrorism, according to a report from ID Experts, an Ore.-based security company.

The report—which examines the past decade of breaches—finds that in the United States, 12.6 million individuals were victims of identity theft in 2012 compared to 5 million in 2003. Moreover, in the past two years, 94 percent of healthcare organizations surveyed suffered at least one data breach and, in 2011, more than two million people were affected by medical identity theft.

Underscoring the financial motivation of the breaches, ID Experts reported that in 2011, a medical record could fetch $50 on the black market.

Medical identity theft is more dangerous than consumer or financial theft, ID Experts CEO Bob Gregg wrote in a blog discussing the report. He explained that when a victim’s medical records are merged with a thief using the same identity, that record becomes “polluted” and the victim may be denied treatment or be misdiagnosed based on this inaccurate information. Further, patients may be denied life insurance or billed for services not rendered.

“Healthcare organizations have a moral obligation to step up their privacy and security efforts to safeguard personally identifiable information and protected health information,” he wrote. “And legislators need to update their thinking about data breaches and identity theft. It is not just consumers’ wallets and reputations we need to protect, it is the personal well-being of that consumer as well.”