Paubox HIPAA Breach Report cover The Paubox HIPAA Breach Report analyzes  protected health information (PHI) breaches affecting 500 or more people as reported to the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) in September 2020.
This report will cover:

 

HIPAA Breaches Ranked by People Affected

Bar chart showing HIPAA breaches ranked by people affected in October 2020, with network server breaches affecting 8.7 million people far exceeding all other attack vectors.

Top Three Breach Types:

  • Network Server breaches ranked first (like the previous 3 months) with 8,737,959 people affected
  • Email breaches ranked second with 558,726 people affected
  • Desktop breaches ranked third with 310,000 people affected

 

HIPAA Breaches Ranked by Occurrence

Bar chart of HIPAA breaches by attack vector, October 2020: Network Server had 60 breaches, Email 17, Electronic Medical Record 5, Desktop 2, Other 2, Other Portable Electronic Device 2, Paper/Films 4.

The Most Common

  • Network server breaches are the most common breach type this month, with 60 breaches in September
  • Email is the second most common breach type with 17 breaches last month
  • Electronic Medical Records are the third most common breach type with 5 breaches

 

Takeaways

Continuing with the previous months' trend, network servers and email continue to be the top contributors to data breaches. However, this month, network server breaches were the largest breach source by a large margin. Trinity Health had the largest breach in September, with 3,320,726 people affected via a network server. Inova Health Systems had the second-largest breach, with 1,045,270 people affected. This breach was also via a network server.

 

Full Data

Click here to view the raw data via Google Sheets.

 

About the Paubox HIPAA Breach Report

The Paubox HIPAA Breach Report analyzes breaches that affected 500 or more individuals, as reported in the  HHS Wall of Shame in September 2020.