8.8 million patient health records breached In August

According to Protenus, a health data security and privacy monitoring company, 8.8 million records containing patient health information (PHI) were breached during August 2016. 

The numbers do not lie, healthcare breaches are only getting more prevalent. Take a look at some of the statistics provided by Protenus Breach Barometer.

• There were 44 breaches in August from 42 different incidents.
• The breach from 32 of these reports resulted in 8.8 Million records being breached.
• A total of 233 breaches occurred from January through August.
• 43% of breaches were due to insider incidents, due to both intentional and wrongdoing.
• 29% of breaches involved some form of hacking, malware, or ransomware.
• 17% of breaches had unknown causes and 12% were due to theft or loss.
• Business associates or vendors were involved in 19% of the breaches.
• 37 incidents involved healthcare provider organizations
• The breaches span across 20 states, with California having the most with six. Illinois, Wisconsin, New York, Florida, and Maryland each had three.

It is clear that breaches in healthcare is a big problem and will continue to be one for the foreseeable future. There are numerous reasons for this. Healthcare organizations must take a more proactive and stronger approach to cybersecurity, the horror stories from these breaches paints a scary picture.

About Paubox: Paubox is a provider of seamless HIPAA compliant encrypted email.