31 Million Patients Affected by Cyber Attacks

Healthcare hacking incidents rise for the fifth consecutive year

By By Dan Hounsell


The siege that healthcare systems find themselves under from cyber attackers shows no signs of letting up.

Hacking incidents on the healthcare sector rose 42 percent from 2019, impacting a combined total of nearly 31 million patient records in 470 security incidents in the last year, according to the latest Protenus Breach Barometer as reported by Health IT Security.

Health systems were pummeled by both the COVID-19 pandemic and cyber threats, with researchers finding a rise in healthcare hacking incidents for the fifth consecutive year.

For its annual analysis, Protenus, with support from DataBreaches.net, reviewed the 758 healthcare data breaches reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2020. The reported number of breaches in 2019 totaled 572.



March 22, 2021


Topic Area: Information Technology


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