Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced the resolution of three investigations and one matter before an Administration Law Judge related to compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule. Two of these cases are part of OCR’s HIPAA Right of Access…
Author: Dissent
Oklahoma City Indian Clinic impacted by Suncrypt’s ransomware attack
The Oklahoma City Indian Clinic (OKCIC) serves 20,000 patients from more than 200 different Native American tribes. A note on their website and their Twitter account currently apologizes that due to technological issues, the pharmacy automatic refill line and mail order services will be down for an indeterminate amount of time. The home page of…
IL: Blessing details defenses amid increasing health system cyber-attacks
Ryan Hill reports: Hospitals and health systems are finding themselves in the crosshairs of cybercriminals more frequently. According to third party cybersecurity company Black Kite’s 2021 Third Party Breach report, attacks on healthcare companies accounted for nearly a third of attacks in 2021. Blessing Health information security chief Todd Haverstock said he has seen the number…
Long Island schools hit with 29 ransomware attacks, hacks, other cyber incidents in past 3 years
Craig Schneider and Joie Tyrell report: Long Island schools suffered from at least 29 incidents of ransomware, computer hacks and other cyber incidents over the past three years, ranging from attacks that crippled computer networks to worker errors that exposed Social Security numbers, addresses and other private information, according to records obtained from the state Education…
FCC Adds Kaspersky and Chinese Telecom Firms to National Security Threat List
Ravie Lakshmanan reports: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday moved to add Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab to the “Covered List” of companies that pose an “unacceptable risk to the national security” of the country. The development marks the first time a Russian entity has been added to the list that’s been otherwise dominated by…
In Act of Hacktivism, Open Source Project Maintainer Uses Code to Wipe Russian and Belarusian Computers
Scott Ikeda reports: Many criminal hacking gangs originate from Russia and nearby points in Eastern Europe, and their ransomware and malware is sometimes found with settings that automatically disable it if regional languages are set on the target computer. An open source project maintainer essentially did the opposite in protest of the war in Ukraine,…