According to a Kaiser Permanente study there have been “more than 900 data breaches of protected health information,” between 2010 and 2013.
By examining data maintained by the US Department of Health and Human Services, researchers found that “29 million records were affected by the breaches, with six involving more than 1 million records each. The majority were caused by criminal activity and, in total, account from more than 82% of all reported breaches in the years that were studied.”
About 67% of breaches occurred over electronic devices and at least 58% involved theft. The healthcare industry continues to come under fire from cyber criminals, with the frequency of breaches increasing from 12% in 2010 to 27% in 2013.