HIPAA Breach Report for September 2018

The Paubox HIPAA Breach Report analyzes protected health information (PHI) breaches affecting 500 or more people as reported to the HHS in August 2018.

HIPAA Breaches Ranked by People Affected

Top Three Breach Types

• Email breaches once again ranked the highest with 545,010 people's PHI hacked or stolen in August. This is the second consecutive month Email took the top spot in this category.
• Network Server breaches ranked a distant second with PHI of 7,465 people breached.
• Paper/Films breaches came in third with 4,722 people having their PHI breached.

Bottom Three Breach Types

• Other ranked as the lowest number of people's PHI being breached in August with 1,321 breaches.
• Desktop Computer was the second lowest type of breach as ranked by people affected with 2,077.
• Electronic Medical Record was the third lowest type of breach as ranked by people affected with 2,180.

HIPAA Breaches Ranked by Occurrence

The Most Common

• Email took the top spot as the most common breach type in August with 13 reported breaches. This was the 6th month in a row Email took the top spot in this category.
• Paper/Films ranked as the second most common breach type with 5 breaches.
• Network Server came in third with 3 reported breaches in August.

Takeaways

For the 6th consecutive month, Email ranked first for Breaches Ranked by Occurrence. Email also ranked first for the 2nd consecutive month for Breaches Ranked by People Affected. Email Breaches are by far the trend in 2018 for HIPAA Breaches.

For example, Augusta Health reported an Email Breach last month that impacted 417,000 people's PHI.

Full 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 August 2018.

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