Hacking, malware and ransomware continue to loom large in today's IT world, according to the Protenus Breach Barometer.
The Barometer, which utilizes data from DataBreaches.net, is a monthly comparison of reported or disclosed breaches impacting the healthcare industry.
Here are six things to know from this month's Protenus Breach Barometer.
1. The number of breaches in October was 5.4 percent less than the number of breaches in September. In October, there were 35 incidents reported to HHS or disclosed to the media. There were 37 incidents in September.
2. There was a total of 776,533 records breached in October. This total includes information available for 31 of the 35 incidents.
3. Forty percent of breaches — or 14 incidents — in October were due to hacking, malware or ransomware. These types of breaches affected 664,549 patient records.
4. Twenty-nine incidents involved healthcare providers, which made up 82.8 percent of the reported entities. Two incidents involved health plans.
5. The amount of time it took entities to report breaches to HHS decreased 58.2 percent between September and October. In October, it took entities an average of 63 days to report a breach, compared to an average of 151 days in September.
6. The 35 incidents in October occurred in 19 total states. California had the most incidents at four. Arizona, Florida, Indiana and New York all reported three incidents.