Singapore Health Services was recently hit by a massive breach with 1.5 million records lost. Although 1.5 million would still be an eye-popping number in the United States, in Singapore this breach affects one in four citizens - comparable to a breach affecting 80+ million plus Americans. This 80 million numbers seems hard to imagine, but it is becoming more and more plausible as ongoing consolidation in healthcare drives ever greater centralization in data storage.
Even in the past few months, Cigna has purchased Express Scripts for $67 bn and CVS has bought Aetna for $69 bn while the widespread expectation is that the approval of the AT&T & Time Warner merger can only prompt more consolidation. The time is coming when breaches at single firms, including healthcare firms holding medical information, will compromise big percentages or even majorities of American consumers.