More than twice as many individuals have been affected by healthcare data breaches in 2013 than in 2012 . . .

So far, more than twice as many individuals have been affected by healthcare data breaches in 2013 than in 2012. And the main reason is a handful of mega-breaches. The very scary part is that three large, highly publicized data breaches have not been tallied yet. If confirmed the tally of individuals affected by breaches could surge by almost a million!  Not yet included on the 2013 list so far are:

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey:  This breach included the theft of two unencrypted desktop computers from the company’s headquarters which affected nearly 840,000 individuals.

The University of Washington Medicine:  This breach affected 90,000 patients.

Cottage Health System in California:  This breach affected 32,500 people who had their personal health information exposed on Google due to a business associate whose servers were not appropriately protected.

The key to preventing healthcare data breaches includes conducting a thorough risk analysis to identify security risks; encrypting computing devices, especially mobile devices and minimizing the amount of sensitive data stored on end-user’s devices.

Key steps to preventing healthcare data breaches of all sizes, experts say, include conducting a thorough risk analysis to identify security risks; encrypting computing devices, especially mobile gear; and minimizing the amount of sensitive data stored on end-users’ devices.