In April, 2017, Lifespan issued a statement disclosing a stolen laptop incident involving unencrypted protected health information. In at least two places in their statement they claim that they are committed to protecting the security and confidentiality of patient data. Today, OCR announced a settlement with Lifespan in which Lifespan is to pay more than…
Category: Health Data
University of Utah notifying patients after phishing attack
Did University of Utah Health really have three phishing incidents this year? Maybe not. I was confused when I saw a new listing on HHS’s public breach tool this week. The incident, reported to HHS on July 20, reportedly affected 10,000 patients and involved PHI located in email. As such, it seemed to match an…
VA sending letter to 1,501 Montana vets about business associate ransomware incident
The Great Falls Tribune reports: The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Health Administration on Thursday announced actions taken to protect veterans’ personal information following a recent privacy breach involving files from the Montana VA Health Care System. Officials said they were notified June 4, by former contractor Benefits Recovery Specialists Inc. of “a data…
Small Health Care Provider Fails to Implement Multiple HIPAA Security Rule Requirements
There’s been a rare sighting of a 2020 HHS settlement of HIPAA charges. An almost 10-year old report of what would be a relatively small breach led to an investigation that uncovered persistent failures to implement the HIPAA Security Rule. From HHS: Metropolitan Community Health Services (Metro), doing business as Agape Health Services, has agreed…
Walmart reports that some patient data may have been stolen by looters during civil unrest
I think this is the first notice I’ve seen of this kind. Notice of Data Incident A number of retail establishments across the country have recently been impacted by widespread civil unrest. On May 31, 2020, Walmart pharmacies at the following locations were impacted by this civil unrest: Store 2648 at 1919 Davis Street in…
‘Unforgivable’: The privacy breach that exposed sensitive details of WA’s virus fight
Kelly Haywood and Gary Adshead report: One of Western Australia’s biggest privacy breaches, which involves the interception of thousands of State Government communications, is under investigation. Nine News revealed on Monday evening that the most sensitive information to be hacked and posted to a public website relates to the management of the Covid-19 crisis in…