Healthcare data breaches up 40% in 2016, hitting 15.9M patient records: 5 key points

Laura Dyrda -

Healthcare data breaches are up 40 percent from 2015, according to a report from the Identity Theft Resource Center.

Here are five things to know:

1. The organization reported there were 376 healthcare breaches last year, compromising 15.9 million patient records.

2. Healthcare experienced the most records breached of all the sectors reported on. The business sector, for example, experienced 495 breaches compromising 5.6 million records and the government/military experienced 72 breaches compromising 13.8 million records.

The banking/financial/credit industry reported 52 breaches compromising 72,262 records, the fewest records compromised from any industry reported.

3. Healthcare made up 34.4 percent of the breaches and 43.6 percent of the records reported on.

4. The breach at Phoenix-based Banner Health accounted for the most stolen records in the healthcare group, with 3.6 million records breached. Newkirk Products was responsible for the second largest breach last year with 3.4 million records breached.

5. There were 1,093 reported breaches last year, up 40 percent from 2015. However, the number may be misleading as it's difficult to tell whether there were more breaches or more reported breaches.

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