◆ The total number of health care records breached in 2017 hit a four-year low even as the number of hacking incidents increased, according to the fourth annual Healthcare Breach Report from cloud access security broker Bitglass. This indicates health care organizations are doing a better job protecting data, the report concludes. The report, based on breach data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, found that the number of breaches fell slightly—from 328 in 2016 to 294 in 2017. Excluding mega-breaches at Anthem, Inc., and Premera Blue Cross, the number of health care records breached dropped 72% between 2015 and 2017, the report found. “The number of hacking and IT incidents has increased, but organizations have done a better job mitigating damage, with 16,060 records compromised per breach on average in 2017,” the company said. From 2014 to 2017, health care organizations reduced the number of breach incidents attributed to lost and stolen devices by 63%, the report found. Still, the cost per leaked record rose last year, from $369 in 2016 to $380 in 2017. Request a copy of the report at http://bit.ly/2I2W3FZ.