Highmark Health defines itself as a “national, blended health organization” that includes the Highmark Health Plan (a Blue Cross Blue Shield insurer); a regional hospital and physician network; and companies that offer dental solutions, reinsurance solutions, population health management, and technology solutions. Letters have not gone out yet and will not be going out in…
Category: Health Data
A Tale of Two Breach Notification Rules
Matt Fisher writes: The early days of February 2023 saw two very different settlements announced related to healthcare data breaches. One arguably follows a well-known course and the other could be a sign of things to come. After having a health breach notification rule on the books since 2009, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) had…
Four more attacks on the healthcare sector, weekend edition
UPDATE of Feb. 10, 2023: Regal Medical Group notified HHS that their incident impacted 3,300,638 patients. Original Post: It may be the weekend, but there’s no rest for the weary when it comes to tracking attacks on the healthcare sector. Here are four more incidents you may not have heard about already: Cardiovascular Associates Cardiovascular…
Julius ‘zeekill’ Kivimäki, former Lizard Squad hacker, arrested in France
Recidivism is a thing. Alexander Martin reports: Julius Kivimäki, the Finnish member of Lizard Squad — who as a teenager in 2015 was convicted on over 50,000 counts of computer crimes — has been arrested again in France. Finnish police confirmed the arrest on Friday in a press release stating the suspect is being held by…
FL: Tallahassee Memorial hospital victim of suspected ransomware attack
Peter Schorsch reports: Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare is postponing all non-emergency patient procedures as officials manage an Information Technology security issue that occurred late Thursday night, according to a memo from the hospital. The IT security breach is a suspected ransomware attack, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. Read more at Florida Politics. The following…
HHS OCR Settles HIPAA Investigation with Banner Health Following 2016 Hacking Incident
The following is a press release from HHS. It is an update to a 2016 hacking incident previously covered on this site. The incident also resulted in a class action lawsuit that was settled for $6 million in 2019. February 02, 2023 Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights…