Joe Camp reports that the I-Team kept digging into the recent eBenefits breach, and came across an interesting document: The I-Team has uncovered documents revealing the Department of Veterans Affairs was warned that a privacy breach, like the one ABC11 exposed last month, was “practically unavoidable because of problems with the VA’s information technology system.”…
Category: Health Data
IN: St. Vincent Hospital notifies 1,100 patients that stolen laptop contained protected health information
St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis is part of St. Vincent Health. A statement uploaded today and linked from the hospital’s homepage says: St.Vincent officials sent letters to approximately 1,100 patients informing them that a laptop connected to an electroencephalogram (EEG) machine and functioning as a medical device was detached and stolen from the hospital on…
Electronic Health Data Breaches Remain Primary Concern Despite Increased Use of Security Technologies and Analytics – Survey
From HIMSS: Results of the 2013 HIMSS Security Survey show that, despite progress toward hardened security and use of analytics, more work must be done to mitigate insider threat, such as the inappropriate access of data by employees. Although federal initiatives such as OCR audits, Meaningful Use and the HIPAA Omnibus Rule continue to encourage healthcare organizations…
Blue Shield of California notifies agents that their SSN was exposed
Blue Shield of California is notifying some agents that their Tax Identification Numbers – which are often the agents’ Social Security Numbers – were accidentally disclosed to some of the agents’ clients who attempted to pay their bills online. In a letter dated today, BSC writes that the problem with SSN exposure existed between December…
Nursing Homes Are Exposed to Hacker Attacks
Rachel King reports: Computer-security researchers have discovered on a website documents that could allow hackers easily to obtain electronic medical records and payment information from health-care providers. The documents—found by two cybersecurity firms on a site commonly used by hackers—detail the type of equipment used in computer networks, the Internet addresses for computers and other…
Breaches: Avoiding Legal Woes
Marianne Kolbasuk McGee interviewed David Navetta of InformationLawGroup on how covered entities can avoid legal woes related to breaches and the significance of a recent settlement between Kaiser and the California Attorney General’s Office. You can listen to the interview on HealthcareInfoSecurity.com. It’s important for covered entities to remember that although HIPAA may allow you…