With security threats becoming more advanced, security and information management must become a top priority. Education and awareness are essential whether its best practices, security trends, or developing a foundational knowledge of security technologies. Our Security Practice Foundations Series blogs can help build a strong foundation in security knowledge.

Cyber security breaches have exposed millions of private records over the last few years – 87 million to be exact – and it’s clear that hackers are not letting up. Federal, state and local agencies face a constant barrage of cyber attacks by organized crime, hacktivists and state-sponsored agents. To fight these threats, agencies need to update their patches and defenses, but budgets are tight and it’s challenging to retain qualified security professionals.

I’m going to start off by being completely honest: The risk for healthcare organizations isn’t getting any better. In fact, we’re now more than five years into the HITECH and Affordable Care Acts, and the risks are greater than ever.

Recently, Premera Blue Cross, a health plan in the Pacific Northwest, was hit with the second-biggest cyberattack in healthcare industry history, exposing the personal, financial and medical information of more than 11 million customers. Only six weeks before, Anthem, the nation’s largest investor-owned healthcare organization, announced that it had been victim of a breach subjecting nearly 80 million records of customers to exposure.