The Paubox Breach Report analyzed HIPAA breach reporting submitted to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services ( HHS) in September to analyze the types of breaches of unsecured protected health information (PHI) affecting 500 or more people.
HIPAA Breaches Ranked by People Affected
Top Three Breach Types
- Email breaches again ranked the highest with 65,817 people's PHI hacked or stolen in September. This is the third consecutive month Email took the top spot in this category.
- Paper/Films breaches ranked second with PHI of 38,457 people breached.
- Other breaches came in third with 16,762 people having their PHI breached.
Bottom Three Breach Types
- Electronic Medical Record ranked as the lowest number of people's PHI being breached in September with 1,494 breaches.
- Desktop Computer was the second lowest type of breach as ranked by people affected with 3,200.
- Network Server was the third lowest type of breach as ranked by people affected with 4,896.
HIPAA Breaches Ranked by Occurrence
The Most Common
- Paper/Films took the top spot as the most common breach type in September with 10 reported breaches.
- Email ranked as the second most common breach type with 8 breaches. This was the first time in seven months Email did not take the top spot in this category.
- Network Server came in third with 3 reported breaches in September.
Takeaways
For the third consecutive month, Email ranked first for Breaches Ranked by People Affected. Although it was bested by Paper/Films as the most common Breach vector in September, HIPAA Email breaches were still much higher than other categories. Email Breaches, by a wide margin, are the 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 September 2018.
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