So far in 2016, third-party data breaches have impacted 4.5 million patients, indicating that third-party business associates pose an alarming risk to patient data, according to a new report from Protenus and DataBreaches.net.
Breaches involving business associates or vendors accounted for a disproportionate amount of affected patients and breached records for the first eight months of 2016, with 30 percent of breaches and 35 percent of breached records reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) public breach portal are a direct result of third parties, according to the report.
