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11.5M healthcare records exposed in 2018; hacking accounts for nearly half of data breaches The number of reported healthcare breaches in 2018 reached a three-year low of 290, but the number of healthcare records breached has more than doubled since 2017, according to a report from Bitglass.

According to Bitglass’ fifth annual healthcare breach report, which analyzes data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ breach portal, 11.5 million healthcare records were exposed last year, up significantly compared to 4.7 million records exposed in 2017.

Hacking and IT incidents accounted for nearly half (46%) of breaches, followed by unauthorized access and disclosure accounting for 36% of breach incidents, according to the report. The number of breaches caused by lost and stolen devices has decreased by almost 70% since 2014.