There were 296 confirmed data breaches in the healthcare industry last year — a substantial portion of which were perpetrated by insiders, according to Verizon's 10th annual Data Breach Investigations Report.
The following three IT security threats made up 81 percent of confirmed healthcare breaches in 2016.
1. Insider misuse, or the unauthorized use of organizational resources
2. Miscellaneous errors, or unintentional mistakes that directly compromise data security
3. Physical theft and loss, which encompasses any incidents where items with data went missing
In 2016, ransomware also accounted for 72 percent of all malware incidents in the healthcare industry, according to the report. However, these incidents were not counted as breaches, since investigators are often unable to confirm whether cyberattackers access data after encrypting it.
Click here to view the full report.