patient information, as well as with respect to misplacing or losing the same. There is no duplicate or backup copy of the paper records and in the event of a flood, fire, theft, or other adverse event, the records, and all patient information, could be lost or destroyed. Paper records do not allow for a number of the benefits of electronic medical records systems, including interoperability with other providers allowing for better coordination of care, and other features designed to improve privacy, security, accuracy and accessibility of patient records. This may create more risk for the Provider Entities, surgeons and our centers to the extent it could lead to clinical issues or breaches of patient privacy.
Our internal computer systems, or those of any of our manufacturers, other contractors, consultants, collaborators, or third party service providers may fail or suffer security or data privacy breaches or other unauthorized or improper access to, use of, or destruction of our proprietary or confidential data, employee data, or personal data, which could result in additional costs, loss of revenue, significant liabilities, harm to our brand and material disruption of our operations.
We use information technology systems, infrastructure, and data in many aspects of our business operations, and our ability to effectively manage our business depends significantly on the availability, reliability and capacity of these systems. We are critically dependent on the integrity, security and consistent operations of these systems. We also collect, process and store significant sensitive, personally identifiable, and/or confidential information and intellectual property, including patients’ information, private information about employees, and financial and strategic information about us and our business partners. The secure processing, maintenance and transmission of this information is critical to our operations.
Our systems (including those of our contractors, consultants, collaborators, and third-party service providers) may be subject to damage or interruption from cyber-attacks, power outages, telecommunications problems, data corruption, software errors, network failures, acts of war or terrorist attacks, fire, flood, global pandemics and natural disasters; our existing safety systems, data backup, access protection, user management and information technology emergency planning may not be sufficient to prevent data loss or long-term network outages. In addition, we and our contractors, consultants, collaborators, and third-party service providers may have to upgrade our existing information technology systems or choose to incorporate new technology systems from time to time in order for such systems to support the increasing needs of our expanding business. Costs and potential problems and interruptions associated with the implementation of new or upgraded systems and technology or with maintenance or adequate support of existing systems could disrupt our business and result in transaction errors, processing inefficiencies and loss of production or sales, causing our business and reputation to suffer. Any material disruption or slowdown of our systems or those of our third-party service providers and business partners, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Further, our systems and facilities, and those of our contractors, consultants, collaborators, and third-party service providers, may be vulnerable to security incidents, including cyber-attacks, ransomware, acts of vandalism, computer viruses, misplaced or lost data, human errors or other similar events. If unauthorized parties gain access to our facilities, networks, or databases, or those of our third-party vendors or business partners, they may be able to steal, publish, delete, use inappropriately, render unreadable or unusable, or modify our private and sensitive third-party information, including personally identifiable information, credit card information, and other sensitive, confidential, or proprietary information. In addition, employees may intentionally or inadvertently cause security incidents that result in unauthorized release of personally identifiable, sensitive, confidential, or proprietary information. Because the techniques used to circumvent security systems can be highly sophisticated, change frequently, are often not recognized until launched against a target and may originate from less regulated and remote areas around the world, we may be unable to proactively address all possible techniques or implement adequate preventive measures for all situations.
Security incidents compromising the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of this information and our systems and those of our third party vendors and business partners could result from cyber-attacks, computer malware, ransomware, viruses, social engineering (including phishing attacks), supply chain attacks, efforts by individuals or groups of hackers and sophisticated organizations, including state-sponsored organizations, errors or malfeasance of our personnel, and security vulnerabilities in the software or systems on which we rely. We anticipate that these threats will continue to grow in scope and complexity over time and such incidents have occurred in the past, and may occur in the future, resulting in unauthorized, unlawful, or inappropriate