Cyberattacks Targeting Health Care Sector Are on the Rise

Health care breaches have exposed more than 343 million patient records since 2009, according to the HHS Office for Civil Rights. In the first half of 2023 alone, the health care sector saw 436 breaches of 500 or more records: 25 of them are now solved while the rest are under investigation.

As the health care sector has increasingly adopted digital services and moved to electronic record keeping, the number of data breaches has been rising since 2015. The median number of patients affected in each breach, which indicates the size of each breach, also increased from 2,300 in 2018 to 7,140 in 2022.

In recent years, some of the biggest breaches targeted health care providers and business associates, such as third-party administrators that assist plans with claims processing or consultants that perform utilization reviews for hospitals. Last year was the first year that business associates suffered more data breaches than any other type of health care entities.

0 Comments
© 2023 MMIT
Jinghong Chen

Jinghong Chen Reporter

Jinghong produces infographics and data stories on health insurance and specialty pharmacy for AIS Health. She graduated from Missouri School of Journalism with a focus on data journalism and international reporting. Before joining AIS in 2018, she worked at WBEZ, Al Jazeera English and The New York Times Chinese.

Related Posts

businessman-viewing-news-update-journalism-headline-on-a-laptop
February 11

News Briefs: Rhode Island Subpoenas UnitedHealth Over Data Breach

READ MORE
medical-bill
July 7

Provider, PBM Assets Grow to Comprise More of Insurers’ Revenue

READ MORE
hands-on-computer
August 25

After 2015 Mega-Breaches, Health Plans Dodge Major Cyberattacks — But Threats Remain

READ MORE

GAIN THERAPEUTIC AREA-SPECIFIC INTEL TO DRIVE ACCESS FOR YOUR BRAND

Sign up for publications to get unmatched business intelligence delivered to your inbox.

subscribe today