DataBreaches.Net

Menu
  • About
  • Breach Notification Laws
  • Privacy Policy
  • Transparency Report
Menu

Cottage Health System Pays $2m to Settle California Charges Over Data Breaches

Posted on November 23, 2017 by Dissent

In December 2013, Cottage Health System disclosed a breach involving PHI. Two years later, we learned of a second breach. And now two years after that, we hear that Cottage Health has settled charges arising from those breaches. From the state’s press release:

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra Wednesday announced a $2 million settlement with Cottage Health System and its affiliated hospitals in California resolving allegations that they failed to implement basic, reasonable safeguards to protect patient medical information in violation of state and federal privacy laws. The settlement requires Cottage to maintain security practices and procedures to protect patients’ medical information from unauthorized access or disclosure. This settlement follows two separate data breach incidents by Cottage Health where more than 50,000 patients’ medical information was made publicly available online.

“When patients go to a hospital to seek medical care, the last thing they should have to worry about is having their personal medical information exposed. The law requires health care providers to protect patients’ privacy. On both of these counts, Cottage Health failed,” said Attorney General Becerra.

In this action, the Attorney General’s Office alleged that Cottage Health System, a not-for-profit based in Santa Barbara, California, failed to adequately protect patient records. Cottage was notified in December 2013 that patients’ confidential medical information was viewable online. One of the company’s servers with medical records for more than 50,000 patients was connected to the internet without encryption, password protection, firewalls, or permissions that would have prevented unauthorized access. In 2015, during the Attorney General’s investigation of the first breach, Cottage Health experienced a second data breach in which the records for 4,596 patients became accessible online for nearly two weeks. The Attorney General’s Office alleged that Cottage’s security failures violated California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act and Unfair Competition Law, as well as the federal Health Insurance Portability and Affordability Act.

Under the settlement announced today, Cottage Health is required to pay a $2 million penalty and upgrade its data security practices. Cottage Health is required to protect patients’ medical information from unauthorized access and disclosure and to maintain an information security program that meets reasonable security practices and procedures for the healthcare industry. It must designate an employee to serve in the capacity of a Chief Privacy Officer and to complete periodic risk assessments.

Attorney General Becerra is committed to protecting consumer and individual privacy through civil prosecution of state and federal privacy laws.

Related posts:

  • OCR Concludes All-Time Record Year for HIPAA Enforcement with $3 Million Cottage Health Settlement
  • Cottage Health Notifying 11,000 Patients Whose Records Were Exposed
  • CA: Cottage Health System Notifies Patients of Data Security Incident (update)
Category: Health Data

Post navigation

← Dalhousie University warns 20,000 of potential information breach
AU: Data breach hits Department of Social Services credit card system →

Now more than ever

"Stand with Ukraine:" above raised hands. The illustration is in blue and yellow, the colors of Ukraine's flag.

Search

Browse by Categories

Recent Posts

  • National Health Care Fraud Takedown Results in 324 Defendants Charged in Connection with Over $14.6 Billion in Alleged Fraud
  • Swiss Health Foundation Radix Hit by Cyberattack Affecting Federal Data
  • Russian hackers get 7 and 5 years in prison for large-scale cyber attacks with ransomware, over 60 million euros in bitcoins seized
  • Bolton Walk-In Clinic patient data leak locked down (finally!)
  • 50 Customers of French Bank Hit by Insider SIM Swap Scam
  • Ontario health agency atHome ordered to inform 200,000 patients of March data breach
  • Fact-Checking Claims By Cybernews: The 16 Billion Record Data Breach That Wasn’t
  • Horizon Healthcare RCM discloses ransomware attack in December
  • Disgruntled IT Worker Jailed for Cyber Attack, Huddersfield
  • Hacker helped kill FBI sources, witnesses in El Chapo case, according to watchdog report

No, You Can’t Buy a Post or an Interview

This site does not accept sponsored posts or link-back arrangements. Inquiries about either are ignored.

And despite what some trolls may try to claim: DataBreaches has never accepted even one dime to interview or report on anyone. Nor will DataBreaches ever pay anyone for data or to interview them.

Want to Get Our RSS Feed?

Grab it here:

https://databreaches.net/feed/

RSS Recent Posts on PogoWasRight.org

  • The Trump administration is building a national citizenship data system
  • Supreme Court Decision on Age Verification Tramples Free Speech and Undermines Privacy
  • New Jersey Issues Draft Privacy Regulations: The New
  • Hacker helped kill FBI sources, witnesses in El Chapo case, according to watchdog report
  • Germany Wants Apple, Google to Remove DeepSeek From Their App Stores
  • Supreme Court upholds Texas law requiring age verification on porn sites
  • Justices nix Medicaid ‘right’ to choose doctor, defunding Planned Parenthood in South Carolina

Have a News Tip?

Email: Tips[at]DataBreaches.net

Signal: +1 516-776-7756

Contact Me

Email: info[at]databreaches.net

Mastodon: Infosec.Exchange/@PogoWasRight

Signal: +1 516-776-7756

DMCA Concern: dmca[at]databreaches.net
© 2009 – 2025 DataBreaches.net and DataBreaches LLC. All rights reserved.