Encryption and the Loss of Patient Data
Fast-paced IT advances have made it increasingly possible and useful for firms to collect data on their customers on an unprecedented scale. One downside of this is that firms can experience negative publicity and financial damage if their data are breached. This is particularly the case in the medi...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Wiley Blackwell
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/75854 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1847-4832 |
| _version_ | 1811080237457342464 |
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| author | Tucker, Catherine Elizabeth Miller, Amalia R. |
| author2 | Sloan School of Management |
| author_facet | Sloan School of Management Tucker, Catherine Elizabeth Miller, Amalia R. |
| author_sort | Tucker, Catherine Elizabeth |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Fast-paced IT advances have made it increasingly possible and useful for firms to collect data on their customers on an unprecedented scale. One downside of this is that firms can experience negative publicity and financial damage if their data are breached. This is particularly the case in the medical sector, where we find empirical evidence that increased digitization of patient data is associated with more data breaches. The encryption of customer data is often presented as a potential solution, because encryption acts as a disincentive for potential malicious hackers, and can minimize the risk of breached data being put to malicious use. However, encryption both requires careful data management policies to be successful and does not ward off the insider threat. Indeed, we find no empirical evidence of a decrease in publicized instances of data loss associated with the use of encryption. Instead, there are actually increases in the cases of publicized data loss due to internal fraud or loss of computer equipment. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:28:01Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/75854 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:28:01Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | Wiley Blackwell |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/758542022-09-27T19:41:57Z Encryption and the Loss of Patient Data Tucker, Catherine Elizabeth Miller, Amalia R. Sloan School of Management Tucker, Catherine Elizabeth Fast-paced IT advances have made it increasingly possible and useful for firms to collect data on their customers on an unprecedented scale. One downside of this is that firms can experience negative publicity and financial damage if their data are breached. This is particularly the case in the medical sector, where we find empirical evidence that increased digitization of patient data is associated with more data breaches. The encryption of customer data is often presented as a potential solution, because encryption acts as a disincentive for potential malicious hackers, and can minimize the risk of breached data being put to malicious use. However, encryption both requires careful data management policies to be successful and does not ward off the insider threat. Indeed, we find no empirical evidence of a decrease in publicized instances of data loss associated with the use of encryption. Instead, there are actually increases in the cases of publicized data loss due to internal fraud or loss of computer equipment. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant 1053398) 2013-01-07T19:25:09Z 2013-01-07T19:25:09Z 2011-05 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0276-8739 1520-6688 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/75854 Miller, Amalia R., and Catherine E. Tucker. “Encryption and the Loss of Patient Data.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 30.3 (2011): 534–556. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1847-4832 en_US http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1002/pam.20590 Journal of Policy Analysis and Management Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ application/pdf Wiley Blackwell SSRN |
| spellingShingle | Tucker, Catherine Elizabeth Miller, Amalia R. Encryption and the Loss of Patient Data |
| title | Encryption and the Loss of Patient Data |
| title_full | Encryption and the Loss of Patient Data |
| title_fullStr | Encryption and the Loss of Patient Data |
| title_full_unstemmed | Encryption and the Loss of Patient Data |
| title_short | Encryption and the Loss of Patient Data |
| title_sort | encryption and the loss of patient data |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/75854 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1847-4832 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT tuckercatherineelizabeth encryptionandthelossofpatientdata AT milleramaliar encryptionandthelossofpatientdata |