According to a recent survey by the HIMSS Analytics research arm of the Chicago-based Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, half of all large hospitals surveyed experienced at least one data breach this year. Of those surveyed, 68% believe expanded breach notification requirements will result in the discovery and reporting of more breach incidents.

On October 8th, The New York Times reported that the FBI Indicted dozens in online bank fraud. In August this year, The Kansas City Star reported that the Radisson Hotels and Resorts said its computer systems were accessed without authorization, affecting an unknown number of people. Perhaps the story that received the most negative press was the T.J. Maxx security breach in which more than 45 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen from its IT systems over an 18-month period. Besides the enormous loss of trust and shareholder value, T.J. Maxx was hit with a class action lawsuit and current estimates place the cost at 4.5 billion according to informationweek.com.

Although there is no 100% guarantee for preventing a security breech, an independent, third-party security assessment by a qualified company like CAaNES demonstrates due diligence and goes a long way towards protecting careers, shareholder value, consumer confidence and computer networks.