Medical data breach


A medical data breach is a data breach of health information, and could include either the personal health information of any individual's electronic health record or medical billing information from their health insurance. In the United States the rate of breaches has increased over time, with 176 million records breached by the end of 2017.

Black market for health data

In February 2015 an NPR report claimed that organized crime networks had ways of selling health data in the black market.
In 2015 a Beazley Group staffperson estimated that medical records could sell on the black market for -50.
Crime is the primary cause of medical data breaches.

How data is lost

Theft, data loss, hacking, and unauthorized account access are ways in which medical data breaches happen. Among reported breaches of medical information in the United States networked information systems accounted for the largest number of records breached.

List of data breaches

In the United States, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act require companies to report data breaches to affected individuals and the federal government.