4.4M Patient Records Breached in Q3 2018, Protenus Finds

There were 117 disclosed health data breaches in the third quarter of 2018, leading to 4.4 million patient records breached, according to the Q3 Protenus Breach Barometer report.

Published by Protenus, a cybersecurity software company that issues a Breach Barometer report each month, the most recent data shows that although the number of incidents disclosed in Q3 decreased somewhat from Q2, the number of breached records increased from Q2 to Q3. Also, the number of affected patient records has continued to climb each quarter in 2018—from 1.13 million in Q1 to 3.14 million in Q2 to 4.4 million in Q3.

In Q3, the report noted that the single largest breach was a hacking incident affecting 1.4 million patient records that involved UnityPoint Health, an Iowa-based health system. Hackers used phishing techniques, “official-looking emails”, to gain access to the organization’s email system and capture employees’ passwords. This new incident follows one that took place at the same organization in April when 16,400 patient records were breached as a result of another phishing attack.

For incidents disclosed to HHS (the Department of Health & Human Services) or the media, insiders were responsible for 23 percent of the total number of breaches in Q3 2018 (27 incidents). Details were disclosed for 21 of those incidents, affecting 680,117 patient records (15 percent of total breached patient records). For this analysis, insider incidents are characterized as either insider-error or insider-wrongdoing. The former includes accidents and other incidents without malicious intent that could be considered “human error.” 

There were 19 publicly disclosed incidents that involved insider-error between July and September 2018. Details were disclosed for 16 of these incidents, affecting 389,428 patient records. In contrast, eight incidents involved insider-wrongdoing, with data disclosed for five of these incidents.

Notably, when comparing each quarter in 2018, there has been a drastic increase in the number of breached patient records as a result of insider-wrongdoing. In Q1 2018, there were about 4,600 affected patient records, in Q2 2018 there were just over 70,000 affected patient records, and in Q3 there were more than 290,000 affected patient records tied to insider-wrongdoing.

What’s more, the report found that hacking continues to threaten healthcare organizations, with another increase in incidents and affected patient records in the third quarter of 2018. Between July and September, there were 60 hacking incidents—51 percent of all Q3 2018 publicly disclosed incidents. Details were disclosed for 52 of those incidents, which affected almost 3.7 million patient records. Eight of those reported incidents specifically mentioned ransomware or malware, ten incidents mentioned a phishing attack, and two incidents mentioned another form of ransomware or extortion. However, it’s important to note that the number of hacking incidents and affected patient records have dropped considerably when comparing each month between July and September 2018.

Meanwhile, of the 117 health data breaches for which data was disclosed, it took an average of 402 days to discover a breach from when the breach occurred. The median discovery time was 51 days, and the longest incident to be discovered in Q3 2018 was due to insider-wrongdoing at a Virginia-based healthcare organization. This specific incident occurred when an employee accessed thousands of medical records over the course of their 15-year employment.