HIPAA Breach Report for August 2023

The HIPAA breach report for August 2023 analyzes protected health information (PHI) breaches affecting 500 or more people as reported to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in July 2023.

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

• Other breaches affected the most people in July 2023. 4,935,147 individuals had their data breached.
• Network server breaches were the second most common breach, with 9,910,400 people affected.
• Email breaches affected 16,788 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 July 2023. There were 42 network server breaches.
• Email breaches were the second most common attack vector. There were 8 email breaches.
• Paper/films and other breaches were the third most common attack vectors, each garnering 3 attacks during the month.

Year-over-year comparison

These charts compare the HIPAA data breach statistics from previous Paubox HIPAA Breach Reports (August 2019, August 2020, August 2021, August 2022) with this month’s report.

HIPAA breaches ranked by people affected

What we observe

• Network server, other, and email breaches affected the most people overall across this comparison.
• The number of people affected by email, network server, and electronic medical record breaches more than doubled in July 2021 compared to July 2020.
• The number of people affected by desktop breaches has steadily decreased across this comparison.

HIPAA breaches ranked by occurrence

What we observe

• Network server, email, and paper/films breach types were the most common attack vectors in this comparison.
  
• The highest number of network server breaches occurred in July 2023.
  
• The number of laptop breaches has remained low across this comparison, with one or less occurrences in the past four July months.

Takeaways

Other breaches affected the most people in July 2023. HCA Healthcare had the most significant breach that affected 11,270,000 people. CareSource had the second-largest breach, which affected 3,180,537 people.

The yearly comparison shows that network server breaches were the most popular attack vectors for bad actors over the last five July months. Over 40 million total individuals had their data accessed via 113 network server 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 May 2023.

SEE ALSO: HIPAA Compliant Email: The Definitive Guide

Robust inbound email security is a necessity for businesses today. Keeping your email security strategy updated helps ensure the protection of your network.