Patient Health Information Precariously Safeguarded, According to Privacy Analytics

According to a new infographic compiled by Ottawa data privacy company Privacy Analytics, costs associated with a data breach, including notification, legal fines, legal fees, forensics, PR, etc., amounts to approximately $208 per person. While data breaches across the board are damaging, from major corporate leaks like Target to member-based services like Ashley Madison, it’s the leaking of personal health information (PHI) that is most sensitive and which Privacy Analytics specializes in.

Last year’s largest PHI-related breach was Anthem Insurance, which saw over 78 million records being breached. Compiling figures from the Office of Civil Rights in the United States and Privacy Analytics CEO Khaled El Emam’s own book, called the Guide to the De-Identification of Personal Health Information, the infographic compiles data related to HIPAA breaches between 2009-2105.

They found that there were 1,286 reported incidents affecting 153 million people.
The most common type of data breach is the result of theft, with hacking, loss, improper disposal, and “other” rounding out the next most common types of data exposure. Obviously, the infographic is created to bring attention to the problem of a lack of data de-identification, which Privacy Analytics specializes in...