The Paubox HIPAA Breach Report analyzes protected health information (PHI) breaches affecting 500 or more people as reported to the HHS in October 2018.
HIPAA Breaches Ranked by People Affected
Top Three Breach Types
- Other breaches ranked the highest with 1,816,976 people's PHI hacked or stolen in October.
- Email breaches ranked second with PHI of 135,279 people breached.
- Network Server breaches came in third with 72,941 people having their PHI breached.
Bottom Three Breach Types
- Electronic Medical Record ranked as the lowest number of people's PHI being breached in October with 698 breaches.
- Paper/Films was the second lowest type of breach as ranked by people affected with 4,638.
- Laptop was the third lowest type of breach as ranked by people affected with 12,424.
HIPAA Breaches Ranked by Occurrence
The Most Common
- Email took the top spot as the most common breach type in October with 7 reported breaches. Email has taken the top rank in this category for 7 of the past 8 months.
- Network Server ranked as the second most common breach type with 6 breaches.
- Other, Paper/Films, and Desktop Computer came in tied for third with 5 reported breaches each in October.
Takeaways
The Employees Retirement System of Texas suffered a HIPAA breach that affected 1.25M people. It was classified in the Other category by HHS. This breach propelled Other as a category into the top spot for Breaches Ranked by People Affected. Email regained the top spot as the most common Breach vector in October. It has ranked first in this category for seven of the past eight months. Email Breaches continue to be the runaway story behind HIPAA breaches in 2018.
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 2018.
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