Hospital data breaches increased nationwide in 2020, affecting around 26.4 million people in the U.S., according to a study published Feb. 19 by cloud security platform Bitglass.
Bitglass analyzed HHS data on hospital breaches in 2020.
Six key findings:
- Healthcare breaches increased 55.1 percent from 386 in 2019 to 599 in 2020.
- Hacking and IT incidents accounted for 67.3 percent of data security compromises in the healthcare sector in 2020, affecting 24.1 million people.
- Unauthorized disclosures were the second most common type of breach (21.5 percent), followed by loss or theft (8.7 percent) and other breaches (2.5 percent).
- The average healthcare firm took 236 days to recover from a breach.
- The average cost per healthcare record breached increased from $429 in 2019 to $499 in 2020, costing healthcare organizations around $13.2 billion in 2020.
- Thirty-seven out 50 states reported more breaches in 2020 than the previous year. Bitglass attributed this to rapid cloud expansion, use of personal devices and working remotely amid the pandemic.
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