The healthcare industry surpasses finance as the sector experiencing the most security breaches

According to risk advisory firm Kroll, healthcare has surpassed finance as the most breached global industry, with 22% of breaches handled by the company in 2022 impacting healthcare businesses. This marks a 38% increase year-over-year from 2021, when the sector accounted for 16% of breaches. Finance, on the other hand, saw a 3% decrease and accounted for 19% of cases in 2022, compared to 22% in 2021.

However, it should be noted that the number of incoming calls related to data breaches in healthcare and the number of consumers taking up identity protection were still lower than in the finance industry. Of all the calls received from consumers following notification of a breach in 2022, 49% were related to finance and only 32% were related to healthcare. Additionally, of all the monitoring taken up by consumers, 69% were related to financial breaches, compared to only 20% in healthcare. The finance industry also saw an annual growth of 127% in the number of calls following a breach, compared to 19% in healthcare.

The finance sector experienced a significant increase of 126% year-on-year in the adoption of identity monitoring, compared to a 66% increase for consumers in the healthcare industry.

According to David White, Managing Director in Kroll's Cyber Risk Practice, "The healthcare industry was particularly vulnerable to data breaches in 2022 as it was still recovering from the pandemic, which may have resulted in data management becoming less of a priority, potentially putting data at risk of exposure. On the other hand, the finance industry continued to report a substantial number of breaches, likely due to the regulatory obligations mandating disclosure.

White further added, "It is noteworthy that consumers seemed more concerned about their financial data than their health data, as reflected in the number of incoming calls from consumers and the amount of identity monitoring taken up following a breach. This gives organizations and their insurers valuable insights on how they should prepare for a potential breach, both in terms of costs and potential litigation."

Despite the proportion of breaches in the healthcare industry increasing, the finance industry still has the most to worry about in terms of consumer reaction and the impact of a data breach.