Is Medical Data Cyber Criminals' 'Holy Grail'? Uncover Insights

Think for a moment about the amount of damage that can be done to your personal life if a criminal gets ahold of your credit card number. Even if they only have access to the card for as little as an hour, they can still rack up thousands of dollars in fraudulent charges. They can still do a massive amount of harm to your credit score, which is something that can take you years to recover from. Now, consider the fact that medical data is ten times as valuable on the black market as a credit card number and you can begin to get an understanding of the cyber security issue that medical professionals are faced with in today's environment.

Medical Data: The "Holy Grail" For Cyber Criminals

According to an article recently published in Reuters, medical data is hugely valuable on the black market for a number of reasons. For starters, there have been huge advancements in security in the credit card industry that make the numbers hard to gain access to in the first place and even harder to use, thus bottoming out the price. Secondly, there have been no such advancements implemented in the medical industry, making the information much easier to steal.

Perhaps the biggest reason why stolen medical data is so valuable, however, has to do with what can be done with it in the wrong hands. Cyber criminals can use medical records to create fraudulent IDs and can then buy medical equipment, drugs and other supplies that can be sold for thousands upon thousands of dollars. Medical data can also be used to file fraudulent claims with insurance providers, getting them even more money.

All of this points to a very serious situation within the industry that needs to be addressed at all costs.

FTP: The Answer You've Been Looking For

One of the biggest ways that medical data is stolen has to do with insecure file sharing practices that medical employees are participating in. FTP and secure FTP solutions, however, are the answer to that particular problem. FTP as a technology is a bold way to bring all of the benefits of file sharing to an organization with none of the security-related down sides at the same time.

FTP allows for the creation of IP black lists, allowing officials to automatically block certain ranges of known fraudulent IP addresses or even IP addresses based on country of origin. White lists can also be used to require each user's login to originate from a specific IP address. Some FTP providers also offer military-grade file encryption, making sure that files are protected both in transit and at rest.

In order to take full advantage of all of the benefits of file sharing, a secure solution like FTP must be employed. This is particularly true of organizations that are responsible for incredibly valuable data like medical data. FTP providers allow organizations easy access to information from any location, allowing them to remain both productive and HIPAA compliant at all times.