In 2017, 477 security breaches exposed 5.6 million patient records to external hackers and insider threats, according to an article on the Marlin Finance website.
The Ponemon Institute conducted a survey of health care organizations in 2016 and found 90% had experienced a data breach in the prior two years.
While breaches, malware and ransomware threats are increasing, insider threats are also an ongoing challenge facing healthcare organizations.
Insider threats are the result of errors, inappropriate use of patient data and deliberate wrongdoing. Insider threats are harder to catch and in some cases they have gone undetected for years, the article said.