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Healthcare overtakes finance as most breached industry - Kroll

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Healthcare has overtaken finance as the most breached global industry, according to risk advisory Kroll, with 22% of breaches handled by the company in 2022 affecting healthcare businesses.

The 22% figure is a 38% increase year-on-year from 2021, when the sector accounted for 16% of breaches. Finance dropped to second place with 19% of the cases in 2022, a 3% drop from 2021 where it accounted for 22% of breach cases.

However, the number of incoming calls related to data breaches in healthcare and the number of consumers taking up identity protection was still less than in the finance industry.

Overall, 49% of calls coming from consumers in 2022 following being notified of a breach were related to the finance industry, whereas only 32% were in the healthcare industry.

Of all the monitoring taken up by consumers, 69% were involved in financial breaches, compared to only 20% in healthcare, and finance saw annual growth of 127% in the number of calls following a breach, compared to 19% in healthcare.

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Healthcare Breached
(Pic: Kroll)

Finance also saw a 126% year-on-year increase in the amount of identity monitoring taken up, compared to a 66% increase for consumers in healthcare.

“The healthcare industry was particularly vulnerable to data breaches in 2022. Still in recovery from the pandemic, it is hardly surprising that data management may have become less of a priority, potentially putting data at risk of exposure," said David White, managing director in Kroll's cyber risk practice.

"The finance industry continued to report a substantial number of breaches, likely because of the regulatory obligations in the industry mandating disclosure.”

White continued: “It is revealing that consumers seemed more concerned about their financial data than health data, based on the number of incoming calls from consumers and the amount of identity monitoring taken up following a breach.

"This gives organisations—and their insurers—clues on how they should prepare for a breach, both in terms of costs and potential litigation.

"Despite the proportion of breaches in the health care industry growing, it seems that the finance industry still has the most to worry about in terms of consumer reaction and the impact of a data breach.”

(Pic: Getty Images)

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