So what kind of month was February for breaches in the healthcare sector? Protenus has released its February Breach Barometer based on incidents compiled by this site. As a reminder: their analyses do not rely solely on HHS’s public breach tool. As in past months, insider incidents – whether accidental or intentional wrongdoing – comprised…
Category: Breach Incidents
No, you can’t defend your reputation if it means revealing PHI without the patient’s consent
Here we go again, it seems. No matter how irate you may be a patient’s bad review and no matter how unfair you think it may be, no, you cannot just reveal their protected health information without their consent – even if they revealed some of it themselves. Patrick Danner reports: A San Antonio doctor…
15 computers with ‘sensitive information’ stolen from Chief Justice Mogoeng’s office
Nic Andersen reports: In our country at the moment, you blink once and there is another crisis. This evening, shocking details have emerged of a very suspicious break-in at the offices of Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng. In the early hours of Saturday morning 15 computers were stolen, in South Africa that may sound normal to you, wait…
Oh those inadequately secured backup devices…
While I’ve been busy tracking W-2 phishing scams, let’s not lose sight of the fact that there are other ways for criminals to obtain W-2 or tax information, and that human error continues to turn assets into low-hanging fruit. Interpreters Unlimited recently notified the Vermont Attorney General’s Office that the contents of an employee’s backup device were…
Affiliated Santé Group learned that patient info was exposed on GitHub for years
So there was another breach disclosed in January that I didn’t find out about until today. It’s an insider-error situation involving a software developer contractor who unintentionally exposed protected health information (PHI) of 550 patients on GitHub – for more than five years. Here is Affiliated Santé Group’s notification: January 30, 2017 RE: Notice of…
Stolen backup drive contained personal and health info of Local 693 members
Local 693 Plumbers, Pipefitters & HVACR Technicians has disclosed a breach to those enrolled in its benefit fund. The incident has also been reported to HHS. From its notification to members: We are writing to notify you that a device containing information regarding participants and beneficiaries of the Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 693 Benefit Funds (“Funds”),…