If you’ve ever wondered how many data breaches occur in any given month, the Health Information Privacy/Security Alert is a great resource. This site keeps a tally of violations reported to the Office of Civil Rights, including how many are referred to the Department of Justice.
The leading reason for breaches, according to HIP/SA, continued to be theft, which accounts for 244 incidents. Following in second and third place were unauthorized access/disclosure and loss of patient data.
So where are the breaches happening? It might surprise you to learn that most breaches involved paper records. After that, laptops, portable electronic devices and network servers ranked among the most common sources of data breaches.
Any guesses which state has had the most security problems? California. It led the nation with 57 breaches. The next biggest offenders were Texas (41) and New York (30).