A recent analysis by the Healthnews team(https://healthnews.com/), based on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services data, reveals that 2023 set a new record for healthcare data breaches.

Last year, the personal information of 135.2 million patients was compromised, affecting over a third of Americans — more than in 2022 and 2021 combined.

Although the number of reported breaches also rose in 2023, it only saw a slight uptick of 2% from the year before, climbing from 720 in 2022 to 734 in 2023. This suggests that the scale of individual breaches has grown larger.

Despite 734 data breaches in U.S. healthcare organizations last year, just five were responsible for almost a third of all affected patients. The largest healthcare breach of the year occurred at HCA Healthcare, one of the nation's leading healthcare providers, which affected nearly 11.3 million Americans.

Patient data has long been a prime target for cybercriminals due to its inclusion of highly sensitive information.

Safeguarding this information demands rigorous data protection, an area where the healthcare sector has consistently fallen short. According to the HIMSS Healthcare Cybersecurity Survey, healthcare organizations dedicate a mere 6% of I.T. budgets to cybersecurity.

As the industry continues to digitize, the healthcare sector will become an even more lucrative source of information for cybercriminals.

Indeed, even the start of the new year has not been immune to cyberattacks. As of 2024, 35 breaches have been reported to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, affecting 5.5 million patients.