Form: Cost-of-Breach DisclosureSource: IBM Cost of a Data BreachFiled: 28 Apr 2026
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Filing NE-20260417-university-of-nebraska-medical-centerHHS OCR Breach Register, Nebraska

Breach filing

Under investigation

University of Nebraska Medical Center: 26,937 individuals, Apr 2026.

University of Nebraska Medical Center reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 17 April 2026. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in Nebraska and lists 26,937 individuals affected, which makes it the 14th largest of the 60 Nebraska filings on the register and the 84th largest of the 441 filings submitted nationally in 2026. It was the only Nebraska filing in 2026.

Individuals affected

26,937

As reported to HHS

Modelled cost (IBM 2025)

$4.31M

Method shown, not disclosed

Rank in NE

14th

of 60 Nebraska filings

Rank in 2026

84th

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
Healthcare Provider
Individuals affected
26,937
Breach submission date
17 April 2026
Submission year
2026
Type of breach
Hacking/IT Incident
Location of breached information
Network Server
Business associate present
No
Portal status
listed by HHS OCR under Cases Currently Under Investigation
Rank in Nebraska by size
14th of 60
Rank in 2026 nationally
84th of 441
Nebraska median filing
3,000 individuals
Register id (derived)
NE-20260417-university-of-nebraska-medical-center

Section F.2 / In context

Where this filing sits in Nebraska and in 2026

OCR classifies the incident as a hacking or IT incident, with the breached information held in a network server. Hacking/IT Incident is the type recorded on 39 of the 60 Nebraska filings (65%) and on 86% of all filings submitted in 2026. Network Server appears on 37% of Nebraska filings.

No business associate is recorded on the filing; 23% of Nebraska filings do involve one. At 26,937 individuals the breach is 9.0 times the Nebraska median filing of 3,000 and 6.7 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 by HHS OCR under Cases Currently Under Investigation. OCR has not published a closing summary, so this page is limited to the fields on the filing itself; the archive entry that follows a closed investigation usually adds a short account of what was exposed and what the entity did afterwards.

Nebraska's breach notification statute (Neb. Rev. Stat. 87-801 et seq.) requires notice to affected residents as soon as possible and without unreasonable delay. Its attorney general threshold: all breaches affecting Nebraska residents. 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 26,937 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 $4.31M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $5.17M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by University of Nebraska Medical Center. For scale, IBM's 2026 average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M, so this filing models at 0.8 times the sector average.

Section F.5 / Modelled cost

26,937 individuals through IBM's per-record figures

Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost

Modelled

IBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record

$4.31M

26,937 x $160

IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record

$5.17M

26,937 x $192

Method: individuals affected, as reported by University of Nebraska Medical Center 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

Nebraska statute and the HIPAA rule

State notification statute

Nebraska: Neb. Rev. Stat. 87-801 et seq.

Financial Data Protection and Consumer Notification of Data Security Breach Act

Notice to individuals
As soon as possible and without unreasonable delay
Attorney general threshold
All breaches affecting Nebraska residents (At the same time as affected individuals)
Private right of action
No: Only the Nebraska Attorney General may enforce
Penalty
Up to $25,000 per violation under the Consumer Protection Act

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

Nebraska filings closest in size

Neighbours by size rank among Nebraska 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 entityTypeIndividualsSubmitted
Nebraska Methodist Health SystemHealthcare Provider39,91214 Dec 2020
Ameritas Life Insurance Corp.Health Plan39,6758 Jul 2019
SEIM JOHNSON, LLPBusiness Associate30,9728 Feb 2016
Lori A. Harkins MD, P.C. dba Harkins Eye ClinicHealthcare Provider23,99310 Jun 2022
CBS Consolidated dba Cornerstone Business and Management SolutionsBusiness Associate21,8565 Sep 2017

Index / Companion schedules

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-under-investigation__2026-08-28.csv, export row 162.

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.