Just the announcement of a merger is enough to trigger increased data breaches, said Nan Clement, a PhD candidate in economics in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences. In July in Geneva, Clement presented her research in a peer-reviewed paper at The 22nd Workshop on the Economics of Information Security, a forum for interdisciplinary scholarship on information security and privacy. Clement said that while it is common knowledge in the cybersecurity and health care industries that mergers are a sensitive time for data vulnerabilities, the effect she found is dramatic. Clement also found that hacking and insider misconduct increased when a hospital merger or acquisition was announced, even before any agreements were signed or consolidation of resources began. “I’m focused on finding best practices for protecting hospital data from ransomware attacks and hacking, but, unfortunately, I don’t think we can 100% prevent data breaches or hacking activities.”