In a refreshingly straightforward breach disclosure, Sentara Health in Virginia reports that on December 19, an anonymous individual called their Compliance Hotline to alert them that while searching for something online, the called had stumbled across an exposed file with patients’ Medicare billing information. Sentara quickly verified the caller’s report and determined that the file…
Category: Health Data
Supreme Court Hears Healthcare Identity Theft Case
Marianne Kolbasuk McGee reports: Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court seem ready to restrict federal prosecutors’ use of a federal law criminalizing identity theft after hearing a case challenging its application in a Medicaid fraud case. Traditional identity theft involving appropriation of personal information for criminal ends, such as obtaining fraudulent prescriptions or submitting fake…
Social engineering attack on Boston labor union results in $6.4 million loss
AP reports: A cyberattack on a Boston-based labor union’s health fund resulted in the loss of $6.4 million, but it does not appear that the personal information of members was stolen or compromised, union officials said. Federal and local law enforcement agencies were notified of the attack at Pipefitters Local 537 that was discovered Feb….
Danish hospitals hit by cyberattack from ‘Anonymous Sudan’
Alexander Martin reports: The websites of nine hospitals in Denmark went offline on Sunday evening following distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks from a group calling itself Anonymous Sudan. Copenhagen’s health authority said on Twitter that although the websites for the hospitals were down, medical care at the facilities was unaffected by the attacks. It later added the sites were back online…
553 days from discovery to notification? DataBreaches asked Dental Health Management Solutions why.
Dental Health Management Solutions (“DHMS”) in Texas describes their services on LinkedIn as providing comprehensive dental services to both the government, public and private customers since 2003. We specialize in Military Readiness for mobile and portable dentistry nationwide and in the U.S territories. We also provide dental services to Nursing Homes, Assisted Living facilities, and…
6 Class Actions: Lawyers Across the Country Move Quickly After Hospital Data Breach
Charles Toutant reports: A New Jersey hospital has been hit with six class action suits after hackers obtained patient information in a data breach. CentraState Medical Center allegedly failed to take adequate precautions to prevent such attacks, and then compounded the error by waiting six weeks to notify plaintiffs and class members about the breach,…