Naomi Diaz reports: The American Hospital Association said HHS’ plan to levy financial penalties in the event of a cyberattack on a healthcare organization would be counterproductive. In a Dec. 6 statement, the AHA said it is advocating for the HHS to review its proposal that requires healthcare organizations to be compliant with new cybersecurity requirements and…
Category: Health Data
Attorney General James Secures $400,000 from Dental Insurance Provider for Failing to Protect Patient Data
Chris Boyle reports: New York Attorney General Letitia James today secured $400,000 from one of New York’s largest dental insurance providers, Healthplex, Inc. (Healthplex), for failing to properly protect the personal and medical information of New Yorkers. Healthplex, a Long Island-based company, had inadequate data security practices that made it susceptible to a data breach attack…
Ransomware Group Publishes Stolen Medical Data
Paul Sisson reports: Though Tri-City Medical Center got its operations back up and running 17 days ago, ransomware extortion efforts appear to be ongoing against the Oceanside hospital. Earlier this week, a cybersecurity expert noted in a message on X, formerly called Twitter, that “INC RANSOM”, a well known group of cyber extortionists, announced its possession of records stolen…
Did Akumin experience two cyber attacks in October and November? It has only acknowledged one. (1)
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…
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…