Breach filing
ArchivedAbsolute Dental Services: 10,037 individuals, Aug 2023.
Absolute Dental Services reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 21 August 2023. The filing records the organisation as a business associate in North Carolina and lists 10,037 individuals affected, which makes it the 76th largest of the 207 North Carolina filings on the register and the 340th largest of the 746 filings submitted nationally in 2023. Among the 15 North Carolina filings made in 2023 it ranks 9th.
Individuals affected
10,037
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$1.61M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in NC
76th
of 207 North Carolina filings
Rank in 2023
340th
of 746 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
- 10,037
- Breach submission date
- 21 August 2023
- Submission year
- 2023
- Type of breach
- Hacking/IT Incident
- Location of breached information
- Business associate present
- Yes
- State
- North Carolina (NC)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in North Carolina by size
- 76th of 207
- Rank in 2023 nationally
- 340th of 746
- North Carolina median filing
- 3,679 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- NC-20230821-absolute-dental-services
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in North Carolina and in 2023
OCR classifies the incident as a hacking or IT incident, with the breached information held in email. Hacking/IT Incident is the type recorded on 130 of the 207 North Carolina filings (63%) and on 82% of all filings submitted in 2023. Email appears on 28% of North Carolina filings.
A business associate is recorded as present on the filing, as it is on 26% of North Carolina filings. At 10,037 individuals the breach is 2.7 times the North Carolina median filing of 3,679 and 2.5 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.
North Carolina's breach notification statute (N.C. Gen. Stat. 75-65) requires notice to affected residents without unreasonable delay. Its attorney general threshold: all breaches (Consumer Protection Division of the AG). 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 10,037 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 $1.61M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $1.93M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by Absolute Dental Services. 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), Absolute Dental Services, reported that an employee was the subject of an email phishing scheme that compromised the protected health information (PHI) of 10,037 individuals. The PHI involved included names, dates of birth, diagnoses and conditions, full face photos, and treatment information. The BA provided breach notification to the affected individuals, the media, the HHS Secretary, and posted substitute breach notice on its website. In response to the breach, the BA implemented multi-factor authentication for all email accounts, increased password complexity requirements, and implemented procedures for clients to send PHI to the BA using a secure file share or secure portal, rather than email.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
10,037 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$1.61M
10,037 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$1.93M
10,037 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by Absolute Dental Services 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
North Carolina statute and the HIPAA rule
State notification statute
North Carolina: N.C. Gen. Stat. 75-65
Identity Theft Protection Act
- Notice to individuals
- Without unreasonable delay
- Attorney general threshold
- All breaches (Consumer Protection Division of the AG) (Concurrent with consumer notification)
- Private right of action
- Yes: Civil action under N.C. Gen. Stat. 75-16 as an unfair and deceptive trade practice; treble damages
- Penalty
- Treble damages for affected individuals; AG may seek injunctive relief, penalties, 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
North Carolina filings closest in size
Neighbours by size rank among North Carolina filings in 2023, topped up from other years where 2023 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligent Business Solutions | Business Associate | 11,595 | 10 Feb 2023 | |||
| Intelligent Business Solutions | Business Associate | 11,595 | 13 Jan 2023 | |||
| Pain Relief Centers PA | Healthcare Provider | 7,000 | 1 Jun 2023 | |||
| Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist | Healthcare Provider | 3,679 | 16 Jun 2023 |
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 1542.
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.