HIPAA News

The website of Blue Cross of Idaho was hacked resulting to the access of its member portal by an unauthorized person who viewed the protected health information (PHI) of some members. Blue Cross of Idaho […]

The consultancy company CynergisTek conducted a study recently and found that healthcare organizations aren’t in conformity to the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules and the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) controls. CynergisTek studied the NIST CSF […]

The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) received another report of a phishing attack that resulted to the compromise of an employee’s email account. This security breach transpired on or before March 26, 2018. This […]

Massachusetts Baystate Health had a phishing attack which impacted the protected health information (PHI) of 12,000 patients. A few employees had their email accounts compromised between February 7 to March 7, 2019. When Baystate Health […]

A phishing attack on Palmetto Health, which is now called Prisma Health, allowed unauthorized persons to access several email accounts. Palmetto Health employees received email messages that have a malicious hyperlink. When the employees clicked […]

Amazon announced a new service that allows healthcare professionals to de-identify medical images by automatically removing any identifying protected health information (PHI) presented in the images. Pictures taken in medical settings often contain personally identifiable […]

A group of 81 female patients of Sharp HealthCare and Sharp Grossmont Hospital have filed a lawsuit against the facility for severe breaches in patient privacy. The lawsuit alleges that the hospital secretly recorded video […]

The number of health and fitness apps and devices has exploded in recent years. These technologies offer the user assistance in achieving a healthier lifestyle by offering personalised guidance or helping the user track any […]

A patient who found her discovered that her private medical information was available on social media platforms is suing the Northwestern Medicine Regional Medical Group for PHI exposure. Earlier this month, Gina Graziano discovered that […]

UCLA Health has settled a class action lawsuit filed by victims of a 2014 data breach for $7.5 million. The UCLA Health breach was one of the largest data breaches in history. Hackers accessed the […]

Beazley Breach Response Services have released a new report indicating that 71% of ransomware attacks target small and medium businesses (SMBs). Ransomware is malware variant which denies the user access to their device, or individual […]

Security researchers have identified two vulnerabilities in the Conexus telemetry protocol used by Medtronic MyCarelink monitors, CareLink monitors, CareLink 2090 programmers, and 17 implanted cardiac devices. One vulnerability is rated as ‘critical’, and the other […]

The University of Washington is alerting nearly a million patients of a data breach that resulted in unauthorised individuals being able to access their protected health information (PHI) through search engines online. The error was […]

Senator Gary Farmer (D-FL) and Representative Bobby DuBose (D-FL) have proposed new bills concerning consumers’ data privacy rights over their biometric data. The Florida Biometric Information Privacy Act aims to “establish requirements and restrictions on […]

Sharecare Health Data Services has reported that an unauthorised individual gained access to sensitive information stored in their systems. Sharecare Health Data Services (SHDS), based in San Diego, provides secure electronic exchange and medical records […]

The 2019 edition of the Verizon Mobile Security Index has been released, showing the significant risk that mobile device breaches pose to the healthcare industry. The report surveyed eight industry sectors to assess the data […]

Columbia Surgical Specialists have announced a ransomware attack on their facility has potentially compromised the PHI of up to 400,000 patients. Columbia Surgical Specialists (CSS), based in Spokane, Washington, discovered the attack on January 9, […]

Senator Catherine Cortex Masto (D-NV) has introduced a new bill which aims to tackle concerns consumers face about the collection and use of their data. Senator Catherine Cortex Masto’s “Data Privacy Act” calls for organisations […]

Kentucky Counselling Center has announced that a data breach has resulted in the exposure of 16,440 patient data files.  On January 4, 2019, a former employee notified Kentucky Counselling Center (KCC) that they had received […]

Rutland Medical Center has announced it has experienced a data breach after an unauthorised individual gained access to the email accounts of several employees. An employee of Rutland Medical Center noticed the breach after realising […]

UConn Health has announced that a recent phishing attack has compromised approximately 326,000 patient files.  UConn Health is the branch of the University of Connecticut that oversees clinical care, advanced biomedical research, and academic education […]

Drupal has released an update which corrects a critical vulnerability in the Drupal CMS.  Drupal is a free and open-source content management framework and provides the back-end framework for approximately 2.3% of websites worldwide.  The […]

The National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) has released a guide to mobile device security. The guide entitled NIST Special Publication 1800-4 Mobile Device Security: Cloud & Hybrid Builds provides practical advice for organisations looking to […]

Researchers at Carbon Black have identified a new Shlayer malware variant that targets Mac computers running MacOS versions 10.10.5 to 10.14.3. The researchers first identified the OrA new Shlayer malware variant a year ago. Mac […]

The Oregon Health Information Property Act proposes that individuals may give permission to their healthcare providers to sell their health data and receive financial compensation from the transaction.   Democrat Senator Floyd Prozanski proposed Senate […]

A new Business Email Compromise (BEC) attack targeting high-level executives has been identified. BEC campaigns are a form of phishing attack in which the cybercriminal impersonates a high-ranking member of an organisation, such as CEO […]

The Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT) has issued an alert about vulnerabilities found in the IDenticard PremiSys access control system. ICS-CERT, a governmental organisation that works to reduce the risk of cybercrime […]

Aetna has agreed to pay the California Attorney General $935,000 for a 2017 breach which resulted in the exposure of the HIV status of 1,991 Californian residents. In July 2017, Aetna, a health insurer based […]

The Supreme Court of Illinois has issued a new ruling which allows individuals whose privacy has been violated through a breach of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act to take legal action against a private […]

The Governor of Massachusetts has signed in a new law that updates the state’s existing data breach laws. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed the law, named “An Act relative to consumer protection from security breaches” […]

A Georgia-based paediatric cardiologist was sentenced to 6 months’ probation after pleading guilty to violating HIPAA legislation by disclosing patient PHI to an unauthorised organisation. Dr Eduardo Montana, 55, plead guilty at the Department of […]

An alert has been issued to IT service providers and their customers about an increase in Chinese malicious cyber activity. The warning was issued by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) United States Computer Emergency Readiness […]

The results of an investigation into a data breach at SingHealth, Singapore’s largest health network, highlight the importance of even the most basic cybersecurity practices for organisations across the globe. The data breach at SingHealth […]

A cybersecurity blog has reported that a new vishing scam in which the scammer pretends to be an employee of Apple Inc. has been uncovered. Vishing is a less common form of phishing attack. The […]

Microsoft has issued patches for 51 vulnerabilities this January 2019 Patch Tuesday. Of the vulnerabilities, 7 were rated critical. Unlike the four preceding months, none vulnerabilities were identified as being actively exploited in the wild. […]

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a critically important piece of legislation created to introduce minimum security and privacy standards in the healthcare industry. HIPAA is a federal law, organisations […]

The San Diego Unified School District has announced that a phishing attack on its network has affected more than half a million of its staff and current and former students. The San Diego Unified School […]

The Clearwater CyberIntelligence Institute (CCI) has announce that it has identified the three most critical cybersecurity risks facing the organisations in the healthcare industry. CCI, part of Clearwater Compliance, a leading healthcare cyber risk management […]

Patients affected by a data security incident at LifeBridge Health in March 2018 have filed a lawsuit against the facility. LifeBridge Health, a nonprofit healthcare corporation in Baltimore, Maryland, discovered that malware had infected one […]

The United States Senate has introduced a bill that would introduce new protections for the personal information of individuals online. The bill, entitled the Data Care Act, was proposed by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) on […]

The University of Vermont Health Network has revealed that a data security incident at the facility has affected approximately 32,000 patients. The breach was discovered on October 18, 2018. An unauthorised third-party had gained access […]

IntSights, a security threat intelligence services reviewer, has released a recent study entitled “Chronic [Cyber] Pain: Exposed & Misconfigured Databases in the Healthcare Industry”. The report highlights how easily accessible huge amounts of healthcare data […]

The University of Maryland Medical System has recently announced that it has been the victim of a malware attack on its network. The University of Maryland Medical System is a private, not-for-profit corporation that operates […]

The Attorney Generals of a dozen states have filed a lawsuit against Medical Informatics Engineering, a healthcare software and systems developer and NoMoreClipboard, an electronic platform for personal health records. The lawsuit is over the […]

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has announced the winners of its Easy EHR Issues Reporting Challenge. ONC is a federal entity that coordinates […]

Allergy Associates of Hartford, P.C. (Allergy Associates) has agreed to pay a fine of $125,000 to the Office of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights to settle alleged violations of the Health Insurance Portability […]

The U.S. Department of Justice has released an update on the investigation of the threat actors behind the SamSam ransomware attacks. SamSam ransomware is a custom infection used in targeted attacks against the healthcare industry […]

The American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), a non-profit organisation dedicated to developing biomedical and health informatics to improve patient care, recently called on the Trump administration to reform data privacy rules in order to better […]

Researchers at Michigan State University and John Hopkins University have released a report containing their analysis of data breaches reported to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) between October […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act has been passed by unanimously by Congress on November 13, 2018.  The new legislation will allow the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will be forming a new agency […]

This week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) has announced an update on the recent HealthCare.gov website breach. Last month, hackers gained access to a health insurance system that interacts with the HealthCare.gov website. […]

Inova Health System, a non-profit health organisation based in Falls Church, Virginia, has announced that it has experienced a data breach. The protected health information (PHI) of over 12,000 of its patients may have been […]

Best Medical Transcription, a transcriptionist vendor, has been fined by the New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal for breaching HIPAA in 2016. The violation occurred while it was working as a business associate of […]

A North Carolina medical center has announced that a phishing attack on its systems has resulted in the protected health information (PHI) of up to 20,000 being compromised.  Catawba Valley Medical Center (CVMC), based in […]

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has officially launched its Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3). Opened on October 29, 2018 by Deputy Secretary of the HHS, Eric Hargan, the center is […]

September 2018 Healthcare Data Breach Report The number of healthcare data breaches reported to the Department of Health and Human Service’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) for September 2018 is down to 25-a decrease of […]

The Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS) has announced that it was recently the victim of a cyberattack that has resulted in approximately 75,000 consumer records being accessed by unauthorised individuals.  On October 13 […]

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released an advise about the vulnerabilities of a number of Medtronic implantable cardiac device programmers that hackers can potentially exploit enabling them to alter the programmer’s functionality when […]

Two healthcare companies experienced email-related breaches recently. The first company, Biomarin Pharmaceutical located in Novato, CA, found out that two email accounts of its employees became compromised because of a phishing attack allowing the attacker […]

Michigan Medicine is sending notification letters to 3,600 patients regarding the impermissible disclosure of some of their protected health information (PHI). The Michigan Medicine Development Office conducted a fundraising project and mailed letters to a […]

Lambda Legal filed a legal case for a data breach victim who, together with 92 lower-income HIV positive individuals, had their highly sensitive protected health information (PHI) stolen by unauthorized people from the California AIDS […]

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (HHS OIG) would like the HHS and the healthcare industry to have greater consciousness of its operation to fight cyberthreats and part of its […]

A staff of KHOU 11, a CBS-affiliated television station, found abandoned documents that include the protected health information (PHI) of roughly 1,800 patients in a street in Midtown, Houston. The documents had information like the […]

Gold Coast Health Plan located in Camarillo, CA told its 37,000 plan members that cyber attackers potentially accessed some of their protected health information (PHI) because one of its employees’ email account was compromised. The […]

The ECRI Institute is a non-profit company that studies new techniques to enhance patient care. It has recently published an annual list that includes the top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2019. The goal of […]

Phishing is one of the leading causes of healthcare data breaches. Phishers are able to access healthcare data from email accounts. In many incidents, those email accounts contain considerable volumes of highly sensitive protected health […]

AggregateIQ is an analytics company based in Canada that acted for the Vote Leave campaign. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issued the first UK GDPR notice to AggregateIQ in connection with business executed in that […]

Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center, which is a not-for-profit community hospital based in Ogdensburg, New York, terminated several employees because they accessed patient medical records even though they do not have authorization to do so. The hospital […]

Ohio Living, which is a firm providing life plan communities and home health services, discovered that an unauthorized individual accessed some of its employees’ email accounts. On July 10, 2018, Ohio Living noticed the suspicious […]

In April 2018, a 65-year old former gynecologist named Rita Luthra from Massachusetts, Longmeadow, was charged with criminal violation of the HIPAA Privacy Rule and federal investigation obstruction. In September 19, 2018, the judge announced […]

The Massachusetts attorney general fined UMass Memorial Health Care the amount of $230,000 for its HIPAA violations with respect to two data breaches which compromised the protected health information (PHI) of over 15,000 state locals. […]

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) fined three hospitals the amount of $999,000 for allowing an ABC film crew to shoot a video footage of patients for its Boston […]

In June 2018, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) has been passed by the California legislature and thus important changes on how the state law safeguards consumer privacy are expected. The new consumer privacy protections […]

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (OIG) has published a report that is saying the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must study medical equipment cybersecurity controls more carefully and more […]

The HHS’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) investigated Fairview Southdale Hospital, which is located in Edina, MN, because of a supposed patient privacy violation. It was found out that during the psychiatric evaluations […]

The Fetal Diagnostic Institute of the Pacific (FDIP) based in Honolulu, Hawaii was attacked by ransomware on June 30, 2018. This resulted to the installation of a file-encrypting software on a server, which encrypted different […]

On September 12, 2018, President Trump approved the declaration of a federal emergency in the state of Virginia. FEMA resources were also made available to the state. Secretary Alex Azar of the U.S. Department of […]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published a Cybersecurity Framework in 2014 to help private companies in assessing their security policies and improving their ability to stop, identify, and respond to cyberattacks. Figures […]

From October 3, 2018, Apple App Store is going to enforce a new privacy policy regulation that app developers are required to tell users what they do with the collected personal data; how they protect […]

The New Mexico Department of Health is checking why the personal health documents of a number of of its patients fell off a truck while being transported from the facility to the safe storage location. […]

NTT Security’s new report showed that 66% of UK’s senior officers confirmed that their organizations are not ready to cover adequately the fiscal effect of data loss in the event of a data breach. This […]

The New York Attorney General fined the Arc of Erie County with $200,000 for Violating HIPAA Rules as a result of failing to safeguard its customers’ electronic protected health information (ePHI). The Arc of Erie […]

The Department of Homeland Security’s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT) issued a statement concerning nine vulnerabilities identified in Philips healthcare products upon the Amsterdam-based technology firm statement of the matter to the […]

There is a code weakness found in Qualcomm Life’s Capsule Datacaptor Terminal Server (DTS) that allows an attacker to get administrator privileges and remotely make changes to the code. The Qualcomm Life Capsule’s DTS is […]

Missouri Care made an error in a sending letters to a number of plan members reminding them to schedule well-child visits. Because of the error, the personal data of around 20,000 children was inadvertently exposed […]

Authentic Recovery Center is a drug and alcohol treatment center located in West Los Angeles that had lately encountered a phishing attack causing the possible access of personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information […]

Dennis and Wayne Russell’s adopted two-year old boy named Keon passed away as a result of accidentally drowning. Soon after the boy was brought to McAlester Regional Health Center, they got a telephone call from […]

Central Colorado Dermatology (CCD) advised around 4,000 patients that hackers possibly viewed some of their protected health information (PHI) due to a ransomware attack on its information system. An unauthorized person obtained access to CCD’s […]

The Gordon Schanzlin New Vision Institute found in La Jolla, CA, notified thousands of patients about the stealing of their healthcare information after records that contains protected health information (PHI) were found to be in […]

In spite of many communication strategies available, healthcare providers still frequently use faxes for communicating. Some estimates propose as much as 75% of all communications take place by means of fax in the healthcare sector. […]

The Anti-Phishing Working Group issued its Phishing Activity Trends Report for Q1 2018 that indicates there was a significant rise in unique phishing webpages found in the first couple of months of 2018 in comparison […]

The healthcare records of over 17,000 patients were compromised in two healthcare data breaches in Massachusetts and Oregon. Lane County Health and Human Services located in Oregon has informed over 700 patients about the loss […]

In the last year, the quantity of email data breach reports progressively went up. The Beazley Breach Insights Report July edition said that 23% of all data breaches documented by BBR (Beazley Breach Response) in […]

On July 22, Alex Azar, The Heritage Foundation, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), stated during an address that the HHS is preparing for various changes to the health privacy regulations […]

There is a new bill filed in the state of Massachusetts looking to boost protections for people affected by data breaches. The bill entails complimentary credit monitoring services to be provided to people whose private […]

Ruben U. Carvajal, MD, a physician in New York began notifying his patients that unauthorized persons potentially accessed their protected health information (PHI). Dr Carvajal knew about the possible privacy breach on January 3, 2018 […]

Alive Hospice in Tennessee found that two of its employees’ email accounts were unsecured because of phishing attacks. While examining Alive Hospice’ email system on May 15, 2018, recurring unauthorized access to the email accounts […]

8,400 patients’ protected health information (PHI) included in the email account of a personnel of Billings Clinic in Billings, MT was exposed. The cybersecurity systems of the clinic spotted a number of strange activities that […]

Cass Regional Medical Center in Harrisonville, MO encountered a ransomware attack on July 9, 2018. The ransomware attack impacted its communication network so employees cannot access its electronic medical record (EHR) system. Thankfully, the medical […]

Humana is letting members know that in certain states that an advanced spoofing attack possibly compromised their protected health information (PHI). A spoofing attack is an effort by a bot or threat actor to access […]