Report: 342 million medical records leaked due to breaches since 2009

Editor's Note

Healthcare organizations in the US have seen almost 5,000 data breaches since 2009, notes a cybersecurity report from technology research company Comparitech published in August 2022. According to the report, these medical breaches have led to 342 million medical records being leaked.

Here are some key findings from the report:

• 4,746 medical breaches were recorded from 2009 to June 2022
• 342,017,215 individual records were affected as a result of these breaches
• 2020 was the biggest year for medical breaches, with 803 reported and 46.6 million records affected
• the second-highest year was 2021 with 711 breaches reported
• 2015 saw the highest number of records affected, with over 112 million total
• so far, in 2021 and 2022, hacking was the most common type of breach (40%)

According to the report, breaches directed at specialty clinics accounted for the most data breaches (15%) at 130 affected facilities in total, and hospital systems accounted for the most breached records (16%) at 8.8 million affected records in total.

The researchers analyzed data from 2009 to June 2022 and further studied breaches that occurred between January 2021 and June 2022 to identify the biggest causes behind the vulnerabilities and which healthcare organizations were most affected.

For more information on how healthcare facilities can protect their ORs against data breaches, revisit the OR Manager article "Don't fall victim to data breaches in your OR," here.