HIPAA Breach Report for February 2022

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 January 2022.

This report will cover:

• HIPAA breaches ranked by people affected
• HIPAA breaches ranked by occurrence
• Year over year comparison
• Takeaways
• Full data

HIPAA breaches ranked by people affected

Most common breaches by type

• Network server breaches affected the most people in January 2022. 1,928,852 individuals had their data breached.
• Email breaches were the second most common breach, with 116,849 people affected.
• Other breaches affected 106,659 people, the third most common breach type.

HIPAA breaches by occurrence

Most common breach types

• Network server was the most common attack vector in January 2022. There were 22 network server breaches.
• Email breaches were the second most common attack vector; ten attacks via email were reported.
• Paper/films breaches were reported seven times last month.

Year over year comparison

HIPAA breaches ranked by people affected

What we observe

• Network server, email, and other breaches affected most people overall in January 2018 - 2022.
• Network server breaches affected a total of 2,924,794 people in these months.
• Email breaches affected 1,147,356 people, and other breaches affected 210,075.
• There was one large breach in January 2022 that affected more than 1 million people. North Broward Hospital District d/b/a Broward Health (network server) was the breach.

HIPAA breaches ranked by occurrence

What we observe

• Email, network server, and paper/films breach types were the most common attack vectors in January 2018-2022.
• Email breaches occurred 57 total times.
• Network server breaches occurred a total of 36 times, and paper/films types occurred 28 times.
• The most significant number of email breaches happened in January 2019.

Takeaways

Network server breaches affected the most people in January 2022.  North Broward Hospital District d/b/a Broward Health had the most significant breach that affected 1,351,431 people. Medical Review Institute of America had the second-largest breach that affected 134,571 people.

The yearly comparison shows that email breaches were the most popular attack vectors for bad actors over the last five January months. Over 1 million total individuals had their data breached via 57 email breaches during this time.

Full data

Click here to view the HHS' raw data via Google Sheets.

About the Paubox HIPAA Breach Report

The Paubox HIPAA Breach Report analyzes breaches that affected 500 or more individuals, as reported on the  HHS Wall of Shame in January 2022.

SEE ALSO: HIPAA compliant email: the definitive guide