The Paubox HIPAA Breach Report analyzes protected health information (PHI) breaches affecting 500 or more people as reported to the HHS in October 2017.
HIPAA Breaches Ranked by People Affected
Top Three Breach Types
- Email breaches ranked the highest with 22,512 people's PHI hacked or stolen in October. That makes the second consecutive month Email has taken the top spot in this category.
- Desktop Computer breaches ranked second with PHI of 8,665 people breached.
- Other breaches came in third with 7,427 people having their PHI breached.
Bottom Three Breach Types
- Paper/Films ranked as the lowest number of people's PHI being breached in October with 836.
- Electronic Medical Record breaches ranked second lowest at 1,551.
- Network Server were the third lowest type of breach as ranked by people affected with 3,123.
HIPAA Breaches Ranked by Occurrence
The Most Common
- Email and Other came in tied as the most common breach types in October with 5 reported breaches each.
- Network Server and Desktop Computer came in tied as the second most common breach type with 2 incidents each.
- Electronic Medical Record, Laptop and Paper/Films rounded out the bottom with one reported breach each.
Takeaways
While October was a relatively "quiet" month for HIPAA breaches, email breaches for second straight month took the top spot for both number of people affected and number of reported breaches. As a HIPAA breach vector, email consistently ranks in the top quadrant for 2017. We do not see this trend abating in the near future.
Full Data
Click here to download the raw data.
About the Paubox HIPAA Breach Report
The Paubox HIPAA Breach Report analyzes breaches that affected 500 or more individuals as reported in the HHS Wall of Shame in October 2017.
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