More Data Breaches Reported for Health-Care Organizations

Health-care organizations are reporting an unhealthy number of data breaches.

The number of health-care organizations that suffered a breach in the past 24 months rose 32% year-over-year, according to new research conducted by the Ponemon Institute, CSO magazine reported Thursday. The average cost of breaches rose substantially for these organizations, to $2.2 million, up from $183,526 in 2010.

About 29% of incidents led to cases of identity theft, up from 26% in 2010, the article said.

Larry Ponemon, the Ponemon Institute's founder, told CSO some possible reasons for the increase in reported breaches. For example, the rise in technology use in hospitals could be leading more employees to possess — and then lose — sensitive devices. Heightened regulatory requirements may also be prompting more health-care organizations to discover breaches on their own. Just 35% of breaches were discovered by patients this year, down from 41% in 2010, the article said.