Dive Brief:
- Healthcare data breach costs hit a record high this year as the industry topped other sectors in this metric for the 12th year in a row, according to a recent IBM Security report with data from the Ponemon Institute.
- The cost of the average breach for healthcare increased by $1 million from March 2021 to March 2022 to hit $10.1 million. That's up more than 40% since the 2020 report.
- The next highest cost for an industry was financial organizations at nearly $6 million, followed by pharmaceuticals at $5 million.
Dive Insight:
As of early this month, nearly 340 healthcare data breaches had been reported in 2022, which could indicate a smaller impact than last year, when breaches hit a record high, according to a report from Fortified Health Security.
Healthcare companies can be hit by additional costs through fines if they violate the HIPAA privacy law. Last week, The Oklahoma State University Center for Health Services paid $875,000 to the federal government to settle allegations of such a violation.
Across all industries, the average cost of a data breach was $9.4 million in the U.S. The most common attack vector was stolen or compromised credentials, according to the report.