The real takeaway from CareFirst breach

(AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

While not as far-reaching as the recent data breaches at Target and Home Depot, or even the massive one at Anthem, the CareFirst breach struck a different cord. The Anthem breach earlier this year taught us that for consumers, health care breaches are scarier and more personal than the others.

Why? It is a whole new level of information that is being compromised. Due to the nature of the system, if consumers want health care, they must trust providers like CareFirst and Anthem to hold and protect their most sacred information. It was even worse for Anthem, which also compromised data from former members and members of private insurance companies for whom Anthem managed paperwork – who didn’t even know they were trusting Anthem with this information.