What is the cost of a security breach that occurs within our organization?
A – The cost of a security breach, especially in the healthcare industry, can be very expensive and potentially result in loss of trust by patient/customers or business associates. According to a recent 2009 study on the financial impact of data breaches on business, the average cost of a breach is equal to $202 per compromised record. For a small healthcare provider (i.e. dentist, physical therapy practitioner, etc) that may have only 100 – 200 clients, the cost of a data breach is somewhere between $20,000 – $40,000 for just a single incident. Medium to large size healthcare providers that see thousands of clients annually, or maintain records of tens of thousands of clients could see costs in the $200,000 – $2,000,000 range from a single incident. These figures do not address business impact to loss of confidence by clients or business associates.
