Utica College's Center for Identity Management and Information Protection Works to Prevent Medical Identity Theft

CIMIP Becomes Partner Sponsor of Protected Health Information Project

UTICA, N.Y., Sept. 15, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With the rapidly rising volume of personal health care information becoming computerized by health care providers, hospitals, medical insurance firms and other related organizations in both the public and private sectors, comes the looming threat that such information can be breached and used for criminal purposes like medical identity theft.

Utica College's Center for Identity Management and Information Protection (CIMIP) is seeking to neutralize this threat and as a result, announced that it has become a partner sponsor of the Protected Health Information (PHI) project.

The PHI project will seek to enhance the nation's ability to protect PHI from the cyber hackers and criminal insiders who have legitimate access to this information and use it for criminal purposes. The project is a joint venture of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Identity Theft Prevention and Identity Management Standards Panel, The Shared Assessments Program and Healthcare Working Group, and the Internet Security Alliance.

Donald Rebovich, Ph.D., executive director of CIMIP, said, "As partner sponsor, CIMIP executive and research staff are making special efforts to identify and analyze financial and technical obstacles that organizations entrusted with safeguarding PHI face in preventing information breaches, and how they presently attempt to circumvent such security breaches."  

Also, CIMIP staff will examine areas such as the precise identification of information system protection areas that have high potential for criminal exploitation and the legal and financial aspects of effectively protecting this information.

Research staff working on this project includes members of the PHI Project's financial committee that will deliver a model that for assessing the financial impact of compromised PHI.

The PHI Project also includes a survey committee whose task is to survey those who are responsible for safeguarding PHI to determine attitudes, risks, the effects of laws and the ultimate costs from the loss of PHI data through data breaches.

The final report of this project will be presented at a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington and will subsequently be presented at a Congressional staff briefing on Capitol Hill.

For more information about CIMIP, visit www.utica.edu/academic/institutes/cimip.

About Utica College – Utica College, founded in 1946, is a comprehensive private institution offering bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. The College, located in upstate central New York, approximately 90 miles west of Albany and 50 miles east of Syracuse, currently enrolls over 3,700 students in 37 undergraduate majors, 27 minors, 22 master's and two doctoral degree programs.

Contact: Christine Leogrande, Director of Media Relations, (315) 223-2519 [email protected]

SOURCE Utica College