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HIPAA Breach Report for August 2021

Hannah Trum August 6, 2021

HIPAA Breach Reports

The Paubox HIPAA Breach Report analyzes protected health information (PHI) breaches affecting 500 or more people as reported to the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) in July 2021.

This report will cover:

HIPAA breaches ranked by people affected
HIPAA breaches ranked by occurrence
Takeaways
Full data

HIPAA breaches ranked by people affected

Bar chart showing HIPAA breaches ranked by attack vector, with network server breaches affecting 3,948,570 people, followed by email at 503,602 and electronic medical records at 152,254.

Most common breach types

Network server breaches affected the most people in July 2021. 3,984,570 individuals had their data breached.
Email breaches were the second most common, with 503,602 people affected.
Electronic medical record breaches affected 152,254 people, the third most common breach type.

HIPAA breaches by occurrence

Bar chart showing HIPAA breaches ranked by occurrence in August 2021, with network server breaches at 22, email at 19, and other vectors ranging from 1 to 5.

Most common breach types

Network servers were the most common attack vector in July 2021. There were 22 network server breaches.
Email breaches were the second most common attack vector; nineteen attacks via email were reported.
Paper/film breaches were reported a total of 5 times last month.

Takeaways

Network server breaches affected the most people and were the most common breach type for the second month in a row. Forefront Dermatology, S.C. had the largest breach affecting 2,413,553 people. Practicefirst had the second-largest breach affected 1,210,688 people. Both breaches occurred via a network server.