On October 25, DataBreaches reported that Akumin’s ability to provide diagnostic services at some locations remained disrupted two weeks after they detected suspicious activity on their network. What they subsequently identified as a ransomware attack occurred during a time when Akumin was also dealing with bankruptcy. While there was some resolution of financial issues, things…
Category: Health Data
Seattle cancer patients face blackmail threats after recent Fred Hutch data breach
Brittany Toolis reports: As if battling cancer isn’t hard enough, now patients at UW’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center are being extorted. Last month, the Cancer Center experienced a data breach, exposing data for an unknown number of patients. Some of those patients are getting emails threatening to leak their personal information if they don’t pay…
The Untold Story of a Massive Hack at HHS in Covid’s Early Days
Jordan Robertson and Riley Griffin report: On March 15, 2020, just days after the US declared a national emergency because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the computer network for the US Department of Health and Human Services briefly vanished from the internet. In public remarks the following day, HHS Secretary Alex Azar attributed the 10-minute outage to a cyberattack but…
HHS’ Office for Civil Rights Settles First Ever Phishing Cyber-Attack Investigation
Louisiana Medical Group settles after investigation reveals large cybersecurity breach affecting nearly 35,000 patients Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR), announced a settlement with Lafourche Medical Group, a Louisiana medical group specializing in emergency medicine, occupational medicine, and laboratory testing. The settlement resolves an investigation following a…
Data breach by Addenbrooke’s Hospital reveals patient information
Mariam Issimdar and Nikki Fox report: A hospital trust has apologized after private information on more than 22,000 patients was released in two breaches. The leaks – in 2020 and 2021 – concerned maternity and cancer patients at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. Roland Sinker, chief executive of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said the breaches…
Millions of patient scans and health records spilling online thanks to decades-old protocol bug
Carly Page reports: Thousands of exposed servers are spilling the medical records and personal health information of millions of patients due to security weaknesses in a decades-old industry standard designed for storing and sharing medical images, researchers have warned. This standard, known as Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine, or DICOM for short, is the internationally…