HIPAA Breach Report for March 2024

The HIPAA breach report for March 2024 analyzes protected health information (PHI) breaches affecting 500 or more people, as reported to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in February 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 February 2024. 4,911,468 individuals had their data breached.
• Email breaches were the second most common breach, with 109,663 people affected.
• Other breaches affected 59,705 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 February 2024. There were 38 network server breaches.
• Email breaches were the second most common attack vector. There were 9 email breaches.
• Paper/films breaches were the third most common attack vector, garnering 7 attacks during the month.

Year-over-year comparison

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

HIPAA breaches ranked by people affected

What we observe

• Network server, email, and laptop breaches affected the most people overall across this comparison.
• The number of people affected by Email breaches is down this month compared to March 2023's breach report and previous years, showing a downward trend.
• The number of people affected by network server breaches is down slightly from last year, but it is still drastically higher than in 2022.

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.
  
• 38 Network server breaches were reported in February, which is up from the previous years and trending upwards with a steady increase year over year.
• The total number of breaches has increased in this month's report by 41% year over year.
  

Takeaways

Network Server breaches affected the most people in February 2024. Medical Management Resource Group, L.L.C. had the most significant breach that affected 2,350,236 people. Eastern Radiologists, Inc had the second-largest breach, which affected 886,746 people.

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

Overall, over 14 million individuals had their data accessed via 210 breaches during the last five Februaries.

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 February 2024.

SEE ALSO: HIPAA Compliant Email: The Definitive Guide

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