New York: Security experts are warning healthcare and insurance companies that 2015 will be the “Year of the Healthcare Hack,” as cybercriminals are increasingly attracted to troves of personal information held by US insurers and hospitals that command high prices on the underground market.

Anthem Inc, the No. 2 U.S. health insurer, last week disclosed a massive breach of its database containing nearly 80 million records, prompting investigations by state and federal authorities. That hack followed a breach last year at hospital operator Community Health Systems, which compromised some 4.5 million records.

“People feel that this will be the year of medical industry breaches,” said Dave Kennedy, chief executive of TrustedSEC LLC.

In the past decade, cybercriminals focused their efforts on attacking banks and retailers to steal financial data including online banking credentials and payment card numbers. But as those companies boost security, using stolen credit card numbers has become more difficult.

Their prices on criminal exchanges have also dropped, prompting hackers to turn to the less-secure medical sector, just as the amount of digital healthcare data is growing dramatically, Kennedy said.

Stolen healthcare data can be used to fraudulently obtain medical services and prescriptions as well as to commit identity theft and other financial crimes, according to security experts. Criminals can also use stolen data to build more convincing profiles of users, boosting the success of scams.

“All of these factors are making healthcare information more attractive to criminals,” said Rob Sadowski, marketing director at RSA, the security division of EMC Corp.