Q4 2017 Report on Healthcare Security Breaches
The healthcare security breaches in Q4 of 2017 decreased by 13%. In Q3, there were 99 data breaches reported to the Department of Health and…
HIPAA News
December 2017 Report on Healthcare Data Breaches
The healthcare data breaches in December 2017 significantly increased by 81% from the previous month. Thirty-eight healthcare data breaches that impacted over 500 persons were…
What do RNs Say About Their Healthcare Organizations’ Ability to Stop Breaches?
The University of Phoenix College of Health Professions conducted a survey recently that involved 504 full time registered nurses (RNs) and administrative staff across the…
Kathryn Marchesini Is the New Chief Privacy Officer at ONC
Kathryn Marchesini is the new appointed chief privacy officer at the Office of National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC). She replaced Acting Chief Privacy Officer…
Florida Agency for Health Care Administration Security Breach Affects 30,000 Medicaid Recipients
The Agency for Health Care Administration in Florida discovered that an employee’s email account was accessed by an unauthorized person. The employee got a malicious…
SSM Health’s Former Employee Got Illegal Access to Sensitive Information of 29,000 Patients
The non-profit health system SSM Health based in St. Louis, MO discovered the unauthorized access of patient health records by a former employee. The former…
OCR’s Cybersecurity Tips for Travelling Healthcare Professionals
In the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) newsletter issued last December, travelling healthcare professionals were given recommendations to…
Cyberattack on Jones Memorial Hospital Did Not Stop Patient Care Services
The University of Rochester Medicine’s Jones Memorial Hospital in Wellsville, New York experienced an unexpected downtime because of a cyberattack on December 27, 2017. The…
Ethical Hackers to Help NHS Find Security Vulnerabilities to Prevent Future Cyberattack
A serious WannaCry ransomware attack occurred in May 2017. The hackers exploited vulnerabilities in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) systems. They installed their malicious…
Healthcare Organizations Need to Address the Increasing Threat of Ransomware and Fileless Malware Attacks
Ponemon Institute conducted a study on current endpoint security trends. Two of the threats that need to be dealt with are ransomware and fileless malware…
Nebraska Ransomware Attack Impacted About 10,000 Patients
Columbus Surgery Center, LLC and Eye Physicians, P.C in Columbus, Nebraska were attacked by ransomware resulting in the potential protected health information exposure of about…
PHI of 6,600 Patients Has Been Exposed
NYU Langone Health System Data Breach A binder that contained a log of presurgical insurance authorizations from NYU Langone Health System was mistakenly recycled by…
Healthcare Data Breach Report for November 2017
Twenty one reports of healthcare data breaches with over 500 affected individuals were submitted to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for…
Email-Based Cyberattacks on Healthcare Organizations Increasing
HIMSS Analytics conducted a study for email security firm Mimecast. The survey results showed that 78% of healthcare organizations had been attacked by ransomware or…
Phishing Attack Potentially Exposed 11,350 Sinai Health System Patients PHI
Chicago’s Sinai Health System was compromised when two of its employees’ email accounts were involved in a phishing attack. The phishing incident that took place…
AHA’s Suggestions for Congress to Lessen Regulatory Requirements on Hospitals
The American Hospital Association (AHA) wrote a letter to the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee concerning how the Congress can help lessen the regulatory…
Big and Small Organizations That Had Misconfigured Cloud Services
As reported by cloud threat defense firm RedLock, the number of misconfigured cloud services is growing. Some of the incidents that had been reported include…
Businesses with Misconfigured Cloud Storage Services are Growing in Numbers
Much of the healthcare industry now use secure cloud storage services to store files of electronic protected health information (ePHI) and to host web applications….
Medical Records From Women’s Heath Consultants Dumped at a Public Recycling Center
Some physical files of medical records from Women’s Health Consultants in South Whitehall Township and Hanover Township, PA were dumped in a recycling center in…
Unencrypted Laptop Stolen from Rocky Mountain Health Care Services Compromised Patients’ PHI
Another unencrypted laptop got stolen from an employee of Rocky Mountain Health Care Services of Colorado Springs. This is the second time that a similar…
UPMC Susquehanna Patients’ PHI Exposed Due to Phishing Attack
The protected health information of 1,200 UPMC Susquehanna patients has potentially been exposed to unauthorized persons. UPMC Susquehanna is a network of hospitals and medical…
NYC to Introduce the Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security Act (SHIELD Act)
The state of New York will introduce the SHIELD Act, which stands for Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security Act. This law requires all…
Experian Health Breach Impacted Cook County Health and Hospitals System Patients
Patients of Cook County Health and Hospitals System received notification of a breach of their protected health information. Two hospitals and about a dozen community…
Californian Wildfires Result in HIPAA Waiver
Earlier this month, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued a limited waiver of HIPAA sanctions and penalties in…
Protenus Breach Barometer Report Released
Protenus-an organisation dedicated to patient privacy monitoring of electronic health records-has released its Breach Barometer report. The report shows there was a significant increase in…
HIV Status of Amida Care Members Revealed Through Mailing Error
Amida Care-a not-for-profit community healthcare service based in New York-has reported a HIPAA breach to the Office of Civil Rights (OCR). Their initial report reveals…
Healthcare Data Breach Report for Q3, 2017
In the third quarter of 2017, Q3, 2017, HIPPA covered entities reported 99 breaches of healthcare data, each involving more than 500 records, reported to…
HSS Withdraws Proposed Rule Following Public Concerns
In January 2014, the Department of Health and Human Services proposed a new rule for certification of compliance for health plans to be introduced into…
TheDarkOverlord Makes Another Extortion Attempt
TheDarkOverlord is a hacking group that has been involved in many high-profile cases in recent months, from allegedly accessing the British Royal family’s healthcare information…
HHS Announces Third Hurricane-Related HIPAA Waiver This Year
In response to the devastating Hurricanes Harvey and Irma that hit the United States earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services…
AHA Responds to Increased Regulations on Hospitals
The American Hospital Association (AHA) recently sent an open letter to the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, in which they suggested several steps that…
Partial Waiver of HIPAA Privacy Rule Penalties Issued Following Hurricane Harvey
The Department of Health and Human Services has issued a waiver of sanctions and penalties for violations of HIPAA’s Privacy Rule in the Hurricane Harvey…
Delaware Updates Breach Notification Law
Delaware has amended its data breach notification law by introducing some of the strictest requirements of any state. It is the first time in a…
Jessie’s Law Passed by U.S. Senate
Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito, both of West Virginia, have announced that Jessie’s Law has been passed by the Senate. The legislation was…
OCR Data Breach Portal Updated
In June 2017, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) confirmed it was contemplating updating its data breach portal. This section is commonly referred…
OCR’s “Wall of Shame” Under Scrutiny
The Office for Civil Rights’ “Wall of Shame” was established in December 2009. This data portal contained summaries of healthcare data breaches published on the…
Mississippi DOM Breaches HIPAA due to Email Error
Earlier this month, the Mississippi Division of Medicaid (DOM) announced that over 5,000 Medicaid recipients have had some of their protected health information (PHI) exposed….
Data on Most Common Types of PHI Breach Released
The Department of Health and Human Services has recently released data revealing the frequency of the most common types of HIPAA violations. The report concerned…
Healthcare Employee Subject to Investigation by DA’s Office
In addition to having their employment contract terminated, healthcare employees who have been identified as improperly accessing the medical records of patients are also likely…
HITRUST Common Security Framework Updates
The Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) is the most widely adopted privacy and security framework in the United States. Earlier this month, it announced that…
New Secretary of HHS and HIPAA Changes
On February 10, 2017, Tom Price was appointed as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services on February. He has replaced Sylvia Matthews…
HIPAA Privacy Rule Updated to Clear Ambiguity
After calls from healthcare professionals to clear the ambiguity surrounding allowable disclosures of protected health information to spouses, relatives, and patients’ loved ones, the Department…
