It was found in a recent study by Forrester that “only 59 percent of healthcare IT professionals said they encrypt devices such as laptops, smartphones or tablets.” Furthermore, Forrester analyst commented that since 2005, 39 incidents have occurred because of lost or stolen devices. This is significant because data that can be uncovered in these devices include protected health information (PHI) which can be easily compounded with personally identifiable information, which puts users at risk of hackings and fraud. More on this study can be found at Health IT Security.

Why is such a large portion of the health care industry still slow to adopt encryption as a solution? Would you be less willing to attend a health care institution if you knew that your data was not encrypted?