Breach filing
ArchivedAetna: 10,888 individuals, Feb 2026.
Aetna reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 27 February 2026. The filing records the organisation as a business associate in Connecticut and lists 10,888 individuals affected, which makes it the 44th largest of the 144 Connecticut filings on the register and the 136th largest of the 441 filings submitted nationally in 2026. Among the 8 Connecticut filings made in 2026 it ranks 5th. Aetna submitted 1 further report on the same day (775 individuals); this page covers the largest and lists the others below.
Individuals affected
10,888
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$1.74M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in CT
44th
of 144 Connecticut filings
Rank in 2026
136th
of 441 filings nationally
Section F.1 / The filing
As posted by HHS OCR
Every value below is the portal's own field for this filing, plus its rank within the register.
- Covered entity type
- Business Associate
- Individuals affected
- 10,888
- Breach submission date
- 27 February 2026
- Submission year
- 2026
- Type of breach
- Unauthorized Access/Disclosure
- Location of breached information
- Paper/Films
- Business associate present
- Yes
- State
- Connecticut (CT)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in Connecticut by size
- 44th of 144
- Rank in 2026 nationally
- 136th of 441
- Connecticut median filing
- 5,000 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- CT-20260227-aetna
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in Connecticut and in 2026
OCR classifies the incident as unauthorized access or disclosure, with the breached information held in paper records or films. Unauthorized Access/Disclosure is the type recorded on 34 of the 144 Connecticut filings (24%) and on 13% of all filings submitted in 2026. Paper/Films appears on 12% of Connecticut filings.
A business associate is recorded as present on the filing, as it is on 35% of Connecticut filings. At 10,888 individuals the breach is 2.2 times the Connecticut median filing of 5,000 and 2.7 times the national median of 4,000 across all 7,884 filings. It sits in the 10,000 to 99,999 band, which holds 1,938 filings.
As of 28 August 2026 the case is listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive. OCR's closing summary of the case is reproduced in full below.
Connecticut's breach notification statute (Conn. Gen. Stat. 36a-701b) requires notice to affected residents without unreasonable delay, no later than 60 days after discovery. Its attorney general threshold: all breaches (no minimum resident threshold). The HIPAA Breach Notification Rule ran alongside it: notice to affected individuals and to HHS without unreasonable delay and no later than 60 days after discovery, which is the clock that put this filing on the portal.
Multiplying 10,888 individuals by IBM's $160 customer-PII cost per record (Cost of a Data Breach 2025, the figure the site's calculator uses) gives a modelled $1.74M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $2.09M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by Aetna. For scale, IBM's 2026 average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M, so this filing models at 0.3 times the sector average.
Section F.3 / OCR closing summary
The portal's archived description, in full
Written by the Office for Civil Rights when the case was closed and reproduced verbatim from the HHS export.
The business associate (BA), Aetna, reported that an employee mailed the protected health information (PHI) of 10,888 individuals to the wrong recipients. The PHI involved included demographic information. The BA notified HHS and the affected individuals. In response to the breach, the BA provided complimentary credit monitoring services to the affected individuals, implemented additional administrative, technical, and security safeguards, and retrained workforce members to better protect PHI.
Section F.4 / Same-day filings
1 further report by Aetna on 27 February 2026
Separate rows on the HHS portal with their own counts; this page covers the largest and lists the rest here rather than giving each its own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aetna | Business Associate | 775 | 27 Feb 2026 |
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
10,888 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$1.74M
10,888 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$2.09M
10,888 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by Aetna to HHS, multiplied by IBM's customer-PII cost per record (Cost of a Data Breach 2025 Figure 6 and the 2026 edition). No cost has been disclosed by the entity for this filing; the figure is a planning estimate, not a fact about the breach. IBM's per-record figures come from mid-volume breaches and IBM cautions against applying them to breaches involving millions of records; the site's per-record page explains where the multiplication holds and where it breaks down.
Context: IBM's average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M in the 2026 report ($7.42M in 2025); the global average across all sectors was $4.44M in 2025.
Cost per record: method and limits / Healthcare breach cost, IBM 2026
Section F.6 / Notification clock
Connecticut statute and the HIPAA rule
State notification statute
Connecticut: Conn. Gen. Stat. 36a-701b
- Notice to individuals
- Without unreasonable delay, no later than 60 days after discovery
- Attorney general threshold
- All breaches (no minimum resident threshold) (No later than the time notice is provided to affected residents)
- Private right of action
- No: Non-compliance is an unfair trade practice; only the AG enforces
- Penalty
- Up to $5,000 per willful violation under CUTPA, plus injunctive relief and restitution
The HIPAA Breach Notification Rule runs alongside the state statute: notice to affected individuals and to HHS without unreasonable delay and no later than 60 days after discovery.
Section F.7 / Peer filings
Connecticut filings closest in size
Neighbours by size rank among Connecticut filings in 2026, topped up from other years where 2026 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waveny LifeCare Network, Inc.Open | Healthcare Provider | 27,113 | 2 Jun 2026 | |||
| Connecticut Department of Social Services | Health Plan | 22,500 | 21 May 2026 | |||
| The Connecticut Institute for the Blind Inc. d/b/a Oak HillOpen | Healthcare Provider | 1,556 | 1 Jul 2026 | |||
| Aetna | Business Associate | 775 | 27 Feb 2026 |
Index / Companion schedules
13 HHS breach register
→Hub: every filing, by state, year and entity.
04 Biggest breaches
→Mega-breaches with primary-source cost figures.
Industry / Healthcare
→IBM 2026: $6.64M average, 13 years at #1.
Regulation / HIPAA penalties
→OCR enforcement tiers and the 60-day rule.
11 50-state laws
→Deadline, AG threshold and penalties per state.
Cost / Per record
→Where the per-record model is reliable.
Provenance
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights, Breach Portal (breaches affecting 500 or more individuals), retrieved 2026-08-28. Public domain. Individuals affected and dates as reported by the covered entity.
Portal: ocrportal.hhs.gov breach report. Statutory basis: HITECH Act section 13402(e)(4): the Secretary must post a list of breaches of unsecured protected health information affecting 500 or more individuals. Breaches affecting fewer than 500 individuals are reported to OCR annually and are not posted, so they are not on this register. Status wording follows the portal's two tabs ("Cases Currently Under Investigation" and "Archive") as of 28 August 2026; a filing moves to the archive when OCR closes the case. Modelled costs on this site are a method applied to the reported count, using IBM Cost of a Data Breach per-record figures, and are never a cost disclosed by the entity. This row: hhs-breach-archive__2026-08-28.csv, export row 83.
Corrections: if you represent a listed entity and the portal row has been amended, email [email protected] with the portal entry and we will re-pull the export.