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 August 2022.
This report covers:
- 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 August 2022. 2,129,030 individuals had their data breached.
- Electronic medical record breaches were the second most common breach, with 1,366,880 people affected.
- Email breaches affected 200,212 people, the third most common breach type.
HIPAA breaches ranked by occurrence
Most common breach types
- Network server was the most common attack vector in August 2022. There were 25 network server breaches.
- Email breaches were the second most common attack vector; 11 attacks via email were reported.
- Electronic medical record breaches were reported 4 times last month.
Year over year comparison
These charts compare the HIPAA data breach statistics from previous Paubox HIPAA Breach Reports (September 2018, September 2019, September 2020, September 2021) with this month’s report.
HIPAA breaches ranked by people affected
What we observe
- Network server, email, and electronic medical record breaches affected most people overall in August 2018-2022.
- Network server breaches affected a total of 8,584,438 people in these months.
- Email breaches affected 1,666,643 people, and electronic medical record breaches affected 1,487,897.
HIPAA breaches ranked by occurrence
What we observe
- Email, network server, and paper/films breach types were the most common attack vectors in August 2018-2022.
- Email breaches occurred 67 total times.
- Network server breaches occurred a total of 61 times, and paper/films types occurred 18 times.
- The most significant number of email breaches happened in August 2019.
Takeaways
Network server breaches affected the most people in August 2022. Novant Health Inc. had the most significant breach that affected 1,362,296 people. Practice Resources, LLC had the second-largest breach that affected 942,138 people.
The yearly comparison shows that email breaches were the most popular attack vectors for bad actors over the last five August months. Over 1 million total individuals had their data breached via 67 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 recent PHI breaches that affected 500 or more individuals, as reported on the HHS Wall of Shame in August 2022.
SEE ALSO: HIPAA compliant email: the definitive guide
Robust inbound email security is practically a necessity for companies these days. Keeping your email security strategy updated helps ensure the protection of your network.
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