Breach filing
ArchivedEast Carolina University's Brody School of Medicine, a member of the ECU Health affiliated covered entity: 19,085 individuals, Feb 2024.
East Carolina University's Brody School of Medicine, a member of the ECU Health affiliated covered entity reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 20 February 2024. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in North Carolina and lists 19,085 individuals affected, which makes it the 57th largest of the 207 North Carolina filings on the register and the 277th largest of the 741 filings submitted nationally in 2024. Among the 23 North Carolina filings made in 2024 it ranks 10th.
Individuals affected
19,085
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$3.05M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in NC
57th
of 207 North Carolina filings
Rank in 2024
277th
of 741 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
- 19,085
- Breach submission date
- 20 February 2024
- Submission year
- 2024
- Type of breach
- Unauthorized Access/Disclosure
- Location of breached information
- Network Server
- Business associate present
- No
- State
- North Carolina (NC)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in North Carolina by size
- 57th of 207
- Rank in 2024 nationally
- 277th of 741
- North Carolina median filing
- 3,679 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- NC-20240220-east-carolina-universitys-brody-school-o
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in North Carolina and in 2024
OCR classifies the incident as unauthorized access or disclosure, with the breached information held in a network server. Unauthorized Access/Disclosure is the type recorded on 49 of the 207 North Carolina filings (24%) and on 15% of all filings submitted in 2024. Network Server appears on 45% of North Carolina filings.
No business associate is recorded on the filing; 26% of North Carolina filings do involve one. At 19,085 individuals the breach is 5.2 times the North Carolina median filing of 3,679 and 4.8 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 19,085 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 $3.05M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $3.66M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by East Carolina University's Brody School of Medicine, a member of the ECU Health affiliated covered entity. For scale, IBM's 2026 average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M, so this filing models at 0.6 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 covered entity (CE), East Carolina University's Brody School of Medicine, reported that certain files on its network that contained the protected health information (PHI) of 19,085 individuals were inadvertently made accessible to its students, employees and certain East Carolina University Health clinicians. The PHI involved included names, birthdates, diagnoses, financial and claims information, and other treatment information. The CE notified HHS, the affected individuals, and the media. In response to the breach, the CE implemented additional administrative and technical safeguards to better protect PHI.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
19,085 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$3.05M
19,085 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$3.66M
19,085 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by East Carolina University's Brody School of Medicine, a member of the ECU Health affiliated covered entity 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 2024, topped up from other years where 2024 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atrium Health | Healthcare Provider | 32,120 | 13 Sep 2024 | |||
| Ott Cone & Redpath, P.A. | Business Associate | 22,171 | 18 Dec 2024 | |||
| Omni Healthcare Financial Holdings | Business Associate | 16,852 | 18 May 2024 | |||
| Valleygate Dental Surgery Centers of Charlotte, Fayetteville, and the West, LLC. | Healthcare Provider | 14,589 | 17 Oct 2024 |
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 1166.
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.