Thirty-three healthcare breaches disclosed in August, affecting 673,934 patient records, according to a Protenus report.
The report, part of the "Protenus Breach Barometer" monthly series, analyzed healthcare breaches disclosed to HHS or reported in the media August 2017.
Here are six things to know.
1. The largest single breach compromised 266,123 patient records in a hacking incident that involved ransomware.
2. The majority (54.5 percent) of breaches were caused by hacking. Others resulted from insiders (27.3 percent) and loss or theft (15.2 percent). Three percent of breaches resulted from unknown causes.
3. Six incidents involved paper or film records, affecting 18,480 patients.
4. Healthcare providers disclosed 24 data breaches, which comprised 72.7 percent of all data breaches in August. Health plans comprised six incidents, business associates or vendors comprised one incident, a pharmacy comprised one incident and a private school comprised one incident.
5. It took an average of 138 days for a healthcare organization to discover a breach. At most, it took one organization 674 days to discover a breach.
6. Healthcare organizations took an average of 53 days from the time they discovered a breach to report it to HHS, with the one entity taking 177 days to report.
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