Bitglass Healthcare Breach Report: More than 26 million people affected last year. U.S. healthcare data breaches up 2020 percent in 55,2.
According to Bitglass' latest Healthcare Breach Report, there were 2020 healthcare data breaches in 599, affecting more than 26 million people in total. Every year the cloud security provider analyzes data from the so-called "Wall of Shame" of the US Department of Health and Social Services. This is a database that contains information about data breaches related to protected health information.
Hacker attacks increase every year
The number of hacker attacks and IT incidents has increased every year since 2018. Events in this category were by far the most common cause of data security breaches in the healthcare sector in 2020: they accounted for 403 of a total of 599 cases (67,3 percent). Hacker attacks and IT incidents also affected 91,2 percent (approximately 24,1 million) of the health records compromised in 2020. Incidents in the three other categories - unauthorized disclosure, loss or theft of end devices, and others - revealed the personal data of around 2,3 million people.
A total of 26,4 million records were affected, costing healthcare companies $ 13,2 billion. The average cost per affected health record increased from $ 429 in 2019 to $ 499 in 2020. In addition, it took the average healthcare company approximately 2020 days to recover from a data breach in 236.
The number of data breaches rose in all areas in 2020 - 37 out of 50 US states recorded an increase compared to the previous year. California suffered the most data security breaches in health care with 49 incidents in 2020, beating Texas hardest hit in 2019, where 43 incidents were counted the following year.
37 out of 50 US states are seeing increases
“The vast majority of healthcare companies process and store proprietary health information, including social security numbers, patient medical histories, and other personal information. It is no surprise that these companies are being targeted by cyber criminals whose goal is to gain access to sensitive data for financial gain, ”said Anurag Kahol, CTO at Bitglass. “The extremely high number of hacker attacks and IT incidents is an expression of the changing strategies of dangerous actors. Healthcare companies that are continuously driving cloud migration and digital transformation must employ appropriate tools and strategies to protect patient records and respond to the increasing threats to their IT ecosystems. "
Directly to the report at Bitglass.com
About Bitglass Bitglass is a global provider of a NextGen CASB solution based in Silicon Valley. The company's cloud security solutions offer agentless zero-day, data and threat protection everywhere, for every application and every device. Bitglass is funded by senior investors and was founded in 2013 by a group of industry veterans who have introduced and implemented numerous innovations in the past.