HIPAA Breach Report for February 2024

The HIPAA breach report for February 2024 analyzes protected health information (PHI) breaches affecting 500 or more people, as reported to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in January 2024.

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 January 2024. 8,863,092 individuals had their data breached.
• Paper/films breaches were the second most common breach, with 72,637 people affected.
• Other breaches affected 37,923 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 January 2024. There were 47 network server breaches.
• Email and paper/films breaches were tied as the second most common attack vector. There were 6 email breaches and 6 paper/films breaches.
• Other breaches were the third most common attack vectors, each garnering 2 attacks during the month.

Year-over-year comparison

These charts compare the HIPAA data breach statistics from previous Paubox HIPAA Breach Reports (February 2020, February 2021, February 2022, February 2023) with this month’s report.

HIPAA breaches ranked by people affected

What we observe

• Network server, email, and other breaches affected the most people overall across this comparison.
• The number of people affected by Email breaches is significantly down this month compared to February 2023's breach report and previous years.
  
• The number of people affected by network server breaches is the highest it has been in the last five January months, driven by an attack on Concentra Health Services, Inc., and INTEGRIS Health, affecting 6.4 million individuals combined.

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.
  
• 47 Network server breaches were reported, which is up drastically from the previous years and more than twice that of both January 2023 and 2022.
• The total number of breaches has increased in this month's report by 60% year over year.
  

Takeaways

Network Server breaches affected the most people in January 2024. Concentra Health Services, Inc. had the most significant breach that affected 3,998,162 people. INTEGRIS Health had the second-largest breach, which affected 2,385,646 people.

The yearly comparison shows that network server breaches were the most popular attack vectors for bad actors over the last five January months.

Overall, over 13 million individuals had their data accessed via 205 breaches during the last five Januaries.

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 January 2024.

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.