HIPAA Breach Report for July 2024

The HIPAA breach report for July 2024 analyzes protected health information (PHI) breaches affecting 500 or more people, as reported to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in June 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 June 2024. 3,772,799 individuals had their data breached.
• Email breaches were the second most common breach, with 128,020 people affected.
• Paper/films breaches affected 18,507 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 May 2024. There were 29 network server breaches.
• Email breaches were the second most common attack vector. There were 7 email breaches.
• Paper/films breaches were the third most common attack vector, with 5 attacks each during the month.

Year-over-year comparison

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

HIPAA breaches ranked by people affected

What we observe

• Network server, email and paper/films breaches affected the most people overall across this comparison.
• The number of people affected by email breaches is down from the previous year.
• There were no Other portable electronic device breaches in June 2024.

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.
  
• 29 Network server breaches were reported in June 2024, down considerably from the previous year.
• The total number of breaches appears to be trending down from the previous two years but relatively flat over a five year period.
  

Takeaways

Network Server breaches affected the most people in June 2024. Geisinger had the most significant breach that affected 1.2 million people. Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago had the second-largest breach, which affected almost 800,000 people.

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

Overall, over 16.7 million individuals had their data accessed via 283 breaches during the last five Junes.

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 July 2024.

SEE ALSO: HIPAA Compliant Email: The Definitive Guide

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