The biggest breach this year affected about 3.5 million people who applied for or signed up for coverage with Florida Healthy Kids, a nonprofit that operates the state’s children’s health insurance program.Florida Healthy Kids hacker found December 2020 and reporting to HHS in January 2021.

Healthcare entities covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act are required to disclose violations within 60 days of being discovered, meaning some incidents reported to OCR in 2021 may have occurred in 2020 or earlier. Data posted to the Office of Civil Rights portal as of Wednesday may not include incidents detected by covered entities in December 2021.

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HHS data shows that hacking and IT incidents are to blame for an increasing number of healthcare breaches each year. Hacking and IT incidents accounted for 68.6% of reported breaches in 2020, 61.1% in 2019, 45% in 2018, 41.3% in 2017, and 35% in 2016.

Safety and patient safety experts have List cyberattacks as a key security concern This can increase a patient’s hospital stay and delay care.Security and Quality Organization ECRI Named Cyber ??Attack Biggest health tech hazard in a report published Tuesday. These events can significantly disrupt hospital operations and patient care, the ECRI study said.

The second-largest breach driver in 2021 after hacking and IT incidents is unauthorized access and disclosure, accounting for 20.6% of breaches that year. 3.4% of breaches were attributed to theft, 1.4% to loss, and 0.7% to mishandling.