The monthly breach report issued by Protenus last week outlining data breaches that occurred in the month of March concludes that there was an “uptick in the number of health data breach incidents.”
According to the report, there were 39 incidents last month that involved health information, compromising 1.5 million patient records. A whopping 44 percent of the incidents were the result of “insider threat,” which includes both criminal (malicious) and accidental (honest) activity. This number includes the largest incident in March involving the theft of 697,800 records from Med Center Health.
It also refers to a recent study issued by the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School that indicates that academic medical centers are more likely to be breached than other health care entities.
The monthly data breach report confirms what we are seeing in the field—that insider threats continue to be an issue for the health care industry, and training and education are key to combat that risk.
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