Data Confidentiality Breach in Healthcare

Saint Leo University

Financial & Managerial Accounting MBA-560-MBOL4

Herbert Pollard

03/27/2022

 

 

 

Graduate Studies in Business Academic Honesty Statement

My signature entered below constitutes my pledge that all the writing in this document is my own work, except for those portions which are properly documented and cited. I understand and accept the following definition of plagiarism:

1. Plagiarism includes the literal repetition without acknowledgment of the writings of another author. All significant phrases, clauses, or passages in this paper which have been taken directly from source material have been enclosed in quotation marks and acknowledged in the text itself as well as on the Reference page.

2. Plagiarism includes borrowing another’s ideas and representing them as my own.

3. To paraphrase the thoughts of another writer without acknowledgement is plagiarism.

4. Plagiarism also includes inadequate paraphrasing. Paraphrased passages (those put into my own words) have been properly acknowledged in the text and in the references.

5. Plagiarism includes using another person or organization to prepare this paper and then submitting it as my own work.

6. Plagiarism includes resubmitting my own previous work, in whole, or in part for a current assignment without the written consent of the current instructor.

Saint Leo University’s core value of integrity requires that students pledge to be honest, just, and consistent in word and deed. I fully understand what plagiarism is, and I further understand that if plagiarism is detected in my paper, my professor will follow the procedures for academic dishonesty set forth by Saint Leo University, the Donald R. Tapia College of Business and the Graduate Student Handbook.

 

Student Signature: Twanda Malcolm

 

Introduction

Technological advancements characterized by intelligent devices, the Internet of Things, cloud services, and information systems have paved the way for quality healthcare services by making it easy for patients to access the medical help they need to live comfortably. However, this makes the healthcare sector become the victim of internal and external data breaches. The study’s main objective is to provide insights into the different categories of data breaches in healthcare and draw inferences from them to acquire findings that will contribute to the improvement of healthcare data confidentiality.

Literature Review

This section will reflect on the prevalence of data breaches in the healthcare sector in the face of digital evolution. According to recent research, the number of individuals affected by confidentiality data breaches increased steadily between 2015 and 2019, adding up to 157.40 million. From this data, it is clear that data breaches in healthcare are becoming a serious concern to be addressed. The research further pinpoints that data breaches come in different forms, which the study will also detail.

Analysis

The study utilized literal qualitative research analysis where it compared different research pieces of literature that have been published on the internet.

Results

Data confidentiality breaches refer to illegal disclosure or usage of healthcare information without the authority of individuals or facilities. The common patterns in data breaches are directly related to hacking which is the most common technique relied on by hackers to steal a healthcare facility’s information. The frequency of financial losses and the quantity of leaked data have also increased, especially over the last few years. The study identified that the main reason why healthcare was becoming the main target was that it deals in data that the criminals perceive to be highly valuable, thus becoming a lure point for pilferage and misappropriation of the data. The study identified that 29.72% of healthcare data breaches were related to hacking, 29.47% were due to unauthorized disclosures from the internal parties, 37.65% to theft, and 3.14% were associated with inappropriate disposal of sensitive information data.

Discussion

The study reveals that technology has played an integral role in improving the quality of care to patients. However, it has created an opportunity for data breaches to transform, making it difficult for security professionals to end these issues.

Conclusion

The study identifies that healthcare records are exposed to a wide variety of external and internal attacks, including hacking, the most common technique targeting EHR records. Other activities involved irresponsible disclosure of patient information and unauthentic disclosure from internal individuals. However, the study pinpoints that this issue can be addressed by employing preventive measures such as using string security features and educating nurses and patients on the prevalence of the problem.