Healthcare companies accounted for most security incidents in first half of 2018

Healthcare companies were responsible for the most security events during the first half of 2018.

Digital security company Gemalto recently released the latest findings in its Breach Level Index—a database of public data breaches. The latest findings detail public data breaches in the first half of 2018.

Healthcare companies accounted for 256 security events during the first half of the year, or 27 percent of the overall security breaches. More than 11 million records were exposed during the events, with the largest incident exposing about 3.5 million records.

The next closest industries with the most breaches in the first half of 2018 were other and financial, representing 17 percent and 14 percent of all breaches, respectively. 

During the first half of 2017, healthcare companies accounted for 305 security incidents; during the first half of 2016, there were 301 healthcare-related security events; and for the first half of 2015, there were 239 events.

In all, more than 4.5 billion records have been breached during the first half of 2018 in a total of 945 breach incidents, with 65 percent of those data breaches involving identity thefts.

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Danielle covers Clinical Innovation & Technology as a senior news writer for TriMed Media. Previously, she worked as a news reporter in northeast Missouri and earned a journalism degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She's also a huge fan of the Chicago Cubs, Bears and Bulls. 

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