HIPAA Breach Report for November 2023

The HIPAA breach report for November 2023 analyzes protected health information (PHI) breaches affecting 500 or more people as reported to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in October 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 October 2023. 2,364,359 individuals had their data breached.
• Network server breaches were the second most common breach, with 1,152,858 people affected.
• Email breaches affected 11,023 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 October 2023. There were 28 network server breaches.
• Email breaches were the second most common attack vector. There were 8 email breaches.
• Paper/films and Desktop breaches were the third most common attack vectors, each garnering 3 attacks each during the month.

Year-over-year comparison

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

HIPAA breaches ranked by people affected

What we observe

• Network server, other, and electronic medical record breaches affected the most people overall across this comparison.
• Email breaches remain a serious threat, impacting over 1.5 million people over the last 5 Octobers.
• The number of people affected by other breaches is the highest it has been in the last 5 Octobers, driven by an attack on Postmeds, Inc.

HIPAA breaches ranked by occurrence

What we observe

• Network server, email, and other breach types were the most common attack vectors in this comparison.
  
• October Network server breaches are down from the previous year, but still twice that of October 2021.
  
• The number of breaches has decreased across this comparison with previous Octobers.

Takeaways

Network Server breaches affected the most people in October 2023. Postmeds, Inc. had the most significant breach that affected 2,364,359 people. Western Washington Medical Group had the second-largest breach, which affected 350,863 people.

The yearly comparison shows that network server breaches were the most popular attack vectors for bad actors over the last 2 October months, with email being the second most common.

Overall, nearly 14 million total individuals had their data accessed via 259 breaches during the last 5 Octobers.

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 October 2023.

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