Healthcare sector accounts for 43 percent of recorded breaches

The healthcare sector accounted for 43 percent of the 619 breaches the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) recorded in 2013. This is the first time that healthcare industry breaches have surpassed those in the business sector since 2005, according to an ITRC report.

“This comes as no surprise to the ITRC, with more and more breaches being reported to the Department of Health and Human Services. Additionally, due to the mandatory reporting requirement for healthcare industry breaches affecting 500 or more individuals, 84 percent of these healthcare breaches publicly stated the number of records exposed,” according a release on the findings.  

Noting the impact of mandatory breach disclosure, Eva Velasquez, ITRC President and CEO, said public awareness of the full number of records allows for a more accurate understanding of the scope of the problem, which can be more difficult to discern in other industries.

Other general findings from the report:

• Hacking is the most common method or type of breach, representing more than one-quarter (25.8 percent) of the total recorded data breaches for 2013. This was followed by third-party involvement (14.4 percent); data on the move (12.9 percent); insider theft (11.6 percent); employee error/negligence (9.2 percent) and accidental exposure (7.6 percent)

• Insider theft soared 80 percent over 2012 figures, with 72 incidents falling into this category, compared to 40 recorded in 2012. 

• 59.1 percent of publicly reported breaches indicated the number of records exposed, which totaled 57,868,922 records. Records can be defined as Social Security numbers, credit cards, financial account numbers or other pieces of information such as driver’s license numbers or medical insurance numbers.
 
• 47 percent of the reported breaches on the 2013 ITRC Breach Report involved the exposure of Social Security numbers and 15.5 percent exposed credit or debit card information.