Breach filing
ArchivedUNC Health Care System: 27,113 individuals, Dec 2017.
UNC Health Care System reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 8 December 2017. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in North Carolina and lists 27,113 individuals affected, which makes it the 46th largest of the 207 North Carolina filings on the register and the 31st largest of the 358 filings submitted nationally in 2017. Among the 9 North Carolina filings made in 2017 it ranks 3rd.
Individuals affected
27,113
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$4.34M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in NC
46th
of 207 North Carolina filings
Rank in 2017
31st
of 358 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
- 27,113
- Breach submission date
- 8 December 2017
- Submission year
- 2017
- Type of breach
- Theft
- Location of breached information
- Desktop Computer
- Business associate present
- No
- State
- North Carolina (NC)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in North Carolina by size
- 46th of 207
- Rank in 2017 nationally
- 31st of 358
- North Carolina median filing
- 3,679 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- NC-20171208-unc-health-care-system
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in North Carolina and in 2017
OCR classifies the incident as theft, with the breached information held in a desktop computer. Theft is the type recorded on 18 of the 207 North Carolina filings (9%) and on 15% of all filings submitted in 2017. Desktop Computer appears on 7% of North Carolina filings.
No business associate is recorded on the filing; 26% of North Carolina filings do involve one. At 27,113 individuals the breach is 7.4 times the North Carolina median filing of 3,679 and 6.8 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 27,113 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 $4.34M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $5.21M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by UNC Health Care System. 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.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.
UNC Health Care System, the covered entity (CE), reported that a computer was stolen that contained 27,113 patients' files of a newly acquired medical practice (Burlington Dermatology). The types of protected health information (PHI) involved in the breach included names, addresses, birthdates, phone numbers, employment information, and social security information. 3,132 of the 27,113 individuals are deceased and the CE had no contact information for the next of kin or personal representatives. The CE provided breach notification to the remaining 23,981 affected individuals, HHS, and the media, and posted substitute notice on the CE's website. As a result of this incident, and OCR's investigation, the CE implemented new policies and procedures to limit the intake of patient files and computer systems from newly acquired medical practices and to upgrade acquired files and computer systems to comply with the CE's security policies. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions noted above
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
27,113 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$4.34M
27,113 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$5.21M
27,113 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by UNC Health Care System 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 2017, topped up from other years where 2017 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Morehead Memorial Hospital | Healthcare Provider | 66,000 | 15 Sep 2017 | |||
| ABB, Inc. | Healthcare Provider | 28,012 | 11 Sep 2017 | |||
| North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services | Health Plan | 12,731 | 23 Feb 2017 | |||
| The Dermatology Center of Raleigh PA | Healthcare Provider | 3,000 | 5 Jul 2017 |
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 5022.
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.