Data security is becoming a critical component in the digital age, and recently five hospitals in California have paid the price, $675,000 to be exact. The hospitals were fined for failing to secure their patient data. These large fines are a testament to the government’s intervention on data security. Every year hospitals lose patient data due to the loss of laptops or removable storage drives. These recent fines are a warning sign to hospitals and other companies to improve their security practices. Last year identity theft has been estimated to have impacted more than 11 million adults and cost American consumers more than $54 billion.

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