According to a survey released last week, 81 percent of U.S. healthcare companies plan to increase security spending this year, compared to an overall industry average of 73 percent.

The spending intent is significantly higher than last year, when only 60 percent of healthcare firms planned to increase security spending.

The higher interest in improving security is likely due to a combination of increased awareness of both data breaches and risks of ransomware, as well as increased regulatory oversight, said Jim DeLorenzo, solutions marketing manager at Thales e-Security, which produced the report.

"They get increased attention as protectors of data that is so essential to everybody's lives," he said.

But while healthcare breaches can be very high profile and dramatic, the actual incidence rate is lower than in other industries.

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