A new report from CyberScout and the Identity Theft Resource Center found the healthcare industry exposed more than 10 million Social Security numbers throughout 2016.
The analysis, called "ITRC Data Breach Report 2016," is a collection of data breaches confirmed by media sources and state governmental notification lists. It includes statistics on five industries: business, education, finance, government and healthcare.
Here are four things to know about the report.
1. The healthcare sector exposed more Social Security numbers than each of the other four industries. In 2016, the healthcare industry exposed a total of 10,486,900 Social Security numbers.
2. The healthcare industry had the highest number of patient records exposed due to employee error or negligence. Throughout 2016, employee error or negligence caused 1,183,893 healthcare records to be exposed.
3. Insider breaches had the biggest impact on the healthcare industry. In 2016, 43 healthcare insider breaches affected 167,263 records.
4. The healthcare industry saw the largest percentage of records exposed due to third party, contractor and business associate-related breaches. Approximately 4,014,923 healthcare records — or 11 percent of all the industries' records — were exposed due to third party breaches in 2016.
Click here to view the full report.