News Feature | March 5, 2015

Healthcare Dead Last In Email Security Report

Katie Wike

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

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According to the most recent Agari State of Email Trust Report, healthcare had the worst average score of all industries.

The healthcare industry earned the worst score in the most recent Agari State of Email Trust Report. According to Health IT Security, industries were ranked by TrustScore, which is based on how well companies protect consumers from cyber threats. ThreatScores are calculated by “the volume of cyber threats targeted toward any given company’s consumers via email relative to other companies and industries analyzed.”

The healthcare industry performed poorly, receiving the lowest TrustScore. Nearly 30 percent of major health insurance companies scored a TrustScore of zero. Of all industries, social scored the best with a TrustScore of 67. Overall, healthcare scored 17. The report points out, “An email ‘from’ your health insurance company is four times more likely to be fraudulent than an email purportedly from a social media company.”

“Email security improved somewhat in 2014, but most companies still haven’t implemented technology that prevents cyber criminals from sending messages that appear to come from their domains — a failure that leaves customers vulnerable to phishing attacks,” according to the State of Email Trust report. “These emails trick people into sharing sensitive information with hackers, leading to identity theft and other crimes. Because victims of phishing attacks often blame the companies they thought sent the forged emails, the attacks also erode the trust companies spend years building with customers.”

Forbes reports Anthem’s breach of the records of nearly 80 million Americans came at an appropriate time to support Agari’s report. “I’m looking at this report side by side with the Anthem breach,” said Agari CEO Patrick Peterson. “And what do you know? Email was used to get in, and they sent emails to all the Anthem users.”

“It’s just not how these companies were built and programmed. It’s not their culture and the world they live in,” says Peterson about the healthcare industry’s scores. “What they’re really charged with is keeping us healthy and happy, and dealing with really traumatic things. This is a completely different challenge for them.”