“Dark Web” Market for Protected Health Information Represents New Cybersecurity Threat

​Recent offers to sell patient records containing protected health information (PHI) on the "Dark Web" represent a new cybersecurity risk that will only increase for healthcare organizations, according to an article published July 11, 2016 in HealthData Management. A hacker known as "Dark Overlord" reported in June the theft of nearly 10 million patient medical records and offered them for sale on the Dark Web market, where hackers buy and sell data from various sources. Information from medical records has turned up on the Dark Web in the past, the author said, but never in such a large quantity. Although the extent of the theft has not been verified by an outside source, the author noted that the material would have a total value of more than $800,000.