Consumers have placed a high level of trust in
healthcare organizations to keep their digital data safe, but companies cannot
afford to take such good relationships for granted.
That is the main finding of a new report from Accenture, which
found that 84% of consumers trust their physician or healthcare provider to
keep data secure, with a further 30% expressing a “great deal” of trust.
A similarly high percentage (80%) trust the labs
processing medical tests to keep information secure, along with hospitals (79%)
and pharmacies (77%)
However, another 13% have experienced a breach of
their healthcare data, with over half (56%) becoming the victims of medical
identity theft.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the study found that 94%
took action to protect their data, whether through changing passwords (22%),
signing up to an identity protection service (22%), or by installing security
software to their own computers (19%).
A further 13% went as far as actually switching
their healthcare provider, while others sought legal advice (27%) or went to
the police (18%).
As a result, Accenture says firms cannot afford to
be complacent, stating: “Now is the time for healthcare providers, health
plans and other organizations to strengthen cybersecurity capabilities, improve
their defences, build resilience and better manage breaches.”
The evidence already suggests that a breach can
prove costly. While 68% of customers said their provider had handled a breach
correctly, some 35% said they had nevertheless lost trust in their ability to
secure data.
The issue is by no means restricted to health care
providers in England, with another Accenture report earlier in the year finding that 26% of Americans had
also suffered a breach in their healthcare data, a figure that also came
against a backdrop of high levels of trust among consumers (88%).
Reza Chapman,
managing director of cybersecurity in Accenture’s health practice, said at the
time: “Not only do health organizations need to stay vigilant in safeguarding
personal information, they need to build a foundation of digital trust with
patients to help weather the storm of a breach.”