1.13M records breached in Q1: 8 things to know

Julie Spitzer -

Nearly 1.13 million patient records were breached in the first three months of 2018, and with  110 reported breaches, healthcare was struck at least once per day, according to a Protenus report.

The report, part of the "Protenus Breach Barometer" quarterly series, analyzed healthcare breaches reported to HHS or disclosed to the media from January to March 2018.

Here are eight things to know.

1. Protenus found 3.38 privacy violations per 1,000 employees, and about 1 in 300 healthcare workers violated patient privacy.

2. Insider error accounted for 37.28 percent of all breaches, followed by hacking (27.27 percent), and loss or theft (20 percent).

3. The most common insider-related breach involved family snooping (77.1 percent).

4. The single largest breach in the first quarter of 2018 was a hacking incident at an Oklahoma-based healthcare organization that affected 279,856 patient records.

5. If an employee breaches patient privacy once, there is a greater than 20 percent chance they will do so again within three months and a greater than 54 percent chance they will do so again within a year.

6. Twenty-three breaches involved paper records, affecting at least 158,711 patient records.

7. Healthcare providers were responsible for 84 disclosed breaches, followed by health plans (12 incidents), business associate or third-party vendors (six incidents) and other organizations (eight incidents).

8. It took an average of 244 days for an organization to detect a data breach, with the shortest discovery time being one day and the longest being 1,150 days — or 4.14 years.

Click here to download the complete report.

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