One In 10 U.S. Residents Affected By Large Health Data Breaches

About 10% of people in the United States had their personally identifiable health information exposed without their permission via one of the 949 large data breaches reported between 2010 and 2013. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires health plans and clinical professionals, as well as their third-party vendors handling protected health information, to report incidents that expose protected health information of 500 or more consumers. The 949 data breaches reported by HIPAA-covered entities affected more than 29 million health records. Most data breaches resulted from overt criminal activity, with 58.2% due to theft and . . .