7 Biggest Healthcare Data Breaches in the US (So Far)

1. Information on 4.9 million Tricare Management Activity beneficiaries was stolen from a Science Applications International Corporation employee’s car in 2011.

2. This year, Complete Health Systems, based in Tennessee, reported that a network server was hacked and personal information was stolen, affecting 4.5 million people around the country.

3. Illinois-based Advocate Health and Hospitals Corporation reported the theft of company computers, which impacted almost 4.03 million individuals in 2013.

4. Health Net in California had a data breach in 2011 that affected 1.9 million people. In that case, IBM alerted Health Net that several unencrypted server hard drives were missing from a California-based data center.

5. Between 2013 and 2014, the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services reported a breach that affected more than 1.06 million people. A network server was hacked and patient data stolen.

6. In 2011, the Nemours Foundation reported it had lost three data tapes containing 10 years' worth of information on 1.05 million patients. The tapes, and the cabinet they were in, went missing from a Delaware facility; the company said it may have happened during a remodeling project.

7. In 2009, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee reported a breach when hard drives were stolen containing information on more than 1.02 million patients.

According to a recent Reuters report, medical information is worth about 10 times more than credit card numbers on the black market. Last month, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) put out an alert to healthcare organizations to be on the lookout for data hackers.

The FBI said it had observed “malicious actors targeting healthcare-related systems, perhaps for the purpose of obtaining Protected Healthcare Information ... and/or Personally Identifiable Information."