The year 2015 will likely end up being the most notorious year to date in regard to data breaches, with the area of health care clearly in the crosshairs. Computer hackers have successfully breached sophisticated cybersecurity at the federal government’s Office of Personnel Management and large companies such as Anthem, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Premera, and Excellus, demonstrating that every system is vulnerable.

These data breaches, including credit card and identity theft, seem like remote events with little consequence for most of us. Physician anesthesiologists and their families assume that their financial institutions will limit their losses and exposure means little more than waiting two days for a newly minted credit card to be delivered. While many ask, “what’s the harm?” a growing number of unfortunate physicians have found the resulting dissemination of their data compromises their credit ratings, adversely affects their ability to complete financial transactions, and (most importantly) harms their personal reputation and confidentiality.