When it comes to security breaches, healthcare organizations are more likely to lose patient information to device theft than hacking, according to a new report from Bitglass.
Bitglass analyzed HHS’ data on publicly reported data breaches, also known as the “wall of shame,” and found that 68 percent of HIPAA violations regarding data breaches were due to loss or theft of devices, while only 23 percent were due to hacking. Of all breaches, 48 percent involved a laptop, desktop computer or mobile device.
And, the percentage of breaches due to theft only increased with incidents where larger numbers of patient records were compromised. Among data breaches of at least 100,000 patient records, 78 percent were the result of device theft or loss. Large data breaches like this comprised only 4 percent of data breach events but 80 percent of lost patient records.
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