Breach filing
ArchivedWyoming Department of Health: 11,935 individuals, Dec 2013.
Wyoming Department of Health reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 19 December 2013. The filing records the organisation as a health plan in Wyoming and lists 11,935 individuals affected, which makes it the 5th largest of the 19 Wyoming filings on the register and the 34th largest of the 277 filings submitted nationally in 2013. Among the 3 Wyoming filings made in 2013 it ranks 1st.
Individuals affected
11,935
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$1.91M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in WY
5th
of 19 Wyoming filings
Rank in 2013
34th
of 277 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
- Health Plan
- Individuals affected
- 11,935
- Breach submission date
- 19 December 2013
- Submission year
- 2013
- Type of breach
- Hacking/IT Incident
- Location of breached information
- Network Server
- Business associate present
- No
- State
- Wyoming (WY)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in Wyoming by size
- 5th of 19
- Rank in 2013 nationally
- 34th of 277
- Wyoming median filing
- 5,615 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- WY-20131219-wyoming-department-of-health
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in Wyoming and in 2013
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 7 of the 19 Wyoming filings (37%) and on 10% of all filings submitted in 2013. Network Server appears on 37% of Wyoming filings.
No business associate is recorded on the filing; 32% of Wyoming filings do involve one. At 11,935 individuals the breach is 2.1 times the Wyoming median filing of 5,615 and 3.0 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.
Wyoming's breach notification statute (Wyo. Stat. 40-12-501, 40-12-502) requires notice to affected residents in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay. Its attorney general threshold: no AG notification requirement. 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 11,935 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 $1.91M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $2.29M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by Wyoming Department of Health. 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 covered entity (CE), Wyoming Department of Health, transferred a copy of the Women Infants and Children benefit program backup database via the internet to a business associate using an unsecured method. Approximately 11,935 individuals were affected by the breach, potentially disclosing demographic information, dates of birth, gender, and identification numbers. The CE notified affected individuals, the media, and the Secretary. Following OCR's investigation, the CE conducted an enterprise-wide risk analysis, developed a risk management plan, and revised its organizational structure in order to hybridize into covered and non-covered functions. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented these corrective action steps.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
11,935 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$1.91M
11,935 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$2.29M
11,935 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by Wyoming Department of Health 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
Wyoming statute and the HIPAA rule
State notification statute
Wyoming: Wyo. Stat. 40-12-501, 40-12-502
- Notice to individuals
- In the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay
- Attorney general threshold
- No AG notification requirement
- Private right of action
- No: No PROA; the AG may bring civil action
- Penalty
- AG may seek injunctive relief, compliance orders, and damages; no statutory penalty cap specified
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
Wyoming filings closest in size
Neighbours by size rank among Wyoming filings in 2013, topped up from other years where 2013 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community Action partnership of Natrona County | Healthcare Provider | 15,000 | 20 Apr 2011 | |||
| Cheyenne Radiology Group & MRI, P.C. | Healthcare Provider | 12,222 | 9 Feb 2023 | |||
| Wyoming Department of Health | Health Plan | 11,935 | 16 Dec 2013 | |||
| Rocky Mountain Oncology Care | Healthcare Provider | 10,268 | 27 Jun 2025 | |||
| Hansen and Associates, Inc. | Business Associate | 2,700 | 15 Jul 2013 |
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 6275.
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.