Healthcare Data Breaches Halved in January
Infosecurity Magazine
Sarah Coble
The number of month-on-month healthcare data breaches of 500 or more records reported in the United States was halved in January, according to new research by the HIPAA Journal.
While December 2020 saw 62 such incidents recorded, only 32 were recorded in January 2021. The 32 breaches occurred across 18 states. Florida, where six of the breaches took place, was the worst affected state.
The journal noted: "While this is well below the average number of data breaches reported each month over the past 12 months (38), it is still more than 1 data breach per day."
Despite the massive decline in the number of breaches recorded in January, the total number of health records compromised in the first month of 2021—4,467,098—exceeded December's total by more than 225,000. A major data breach at Florida Healthy Kids Corporation that impacted 3.5 million individuals was key in driving January's figure past the four million mark.
The breach—one of the largest ever suffered by the US healthcare industry—occurred when cyber-attackers hit...