Today, practices and services offered by healthcare providers help to improve quality of care at a decreased cost. However, this opens up access to large amounts of healthcare data, a popular target for attackers and hackers, as they contain confidential information such as:
- Demographics
- Social Security numbers
- Credit card information
As such, the healthcare sector is suffering from many data breaches.
According to hipaajournal.com, 707 breaches were reported in 2022, resulting in compromise of a staggering 51,000,000 healthcare records. In 2021, there were 715 breaches and 54 million healthcare records compromised. These are scary numbers to look at.
Of the 707 breaches reported in 2022:
- 555 breaches are the result of hacking or an IT incident
- 113 are the result of unauthorized access or disclosure
- 35 are the result of loss or theft
- 4 are the result of improper disposal
In 2022, more than 43 million records were compromised due to hacking or an IT incident. The major portion of these breaches happened at network servers and through emails. The numbers are even greater when you factor in business associates and healthcare providers, who handle most of the healthcare data. Settlements and penalties accounted for $2,127,140 in 2022, alone.