March 5. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is aware that Change Healthcare – a unit of UnitedHealth Group (UHG) – was impacted by a cybersecurity incident in late February. HHS recognizes the impact this attack has had on health care operations across the country. HHS’ first priority is to help coordinate…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
Three recent breach disclosures remind us how seldom timely breach notification is enforced under HITECH
Three recent data breach disclosures involving patient data all exceeded HIPAA’s 60-day deadline to notify HHS and individuals. Yakima Valley Radiology A breach involving the Washington state radiology service was added to Karakurt’s leak site in November 2023 with a listing claiming — without proof — that they had acquired 9.31 GB of files with financial…
EPIC Emphasizes That FCC Pilot Program Protect Student Privacy, Not Just School Cybersecurity
From the good folks at EPIC.org: On February 27, EPIC filed reply comments with the Federal Communications Commission supporting the FCC’s proposal to use funds from its E-Rate program to support strengthening cybersecurity at schools and libraries, as these are increasingly attractive targets to hackers. The E-Rate program uses discounted pricing to facilitate schools and libraries providing…
These Video Doorbells Have Terrible Security. Amazon Sells Them Anyway.
Stacey Higginbotham and Daniel Wroclawski report: On a recent Thursday afternoon, a Consumer Reports journalist received an email containing a grainy image of herself waving at a doorbell camera she’d set up at her back door. If the message came from a complete stranger, it would have been alarming. Instead, it was sent by Steve…
CISA Alert CodeAA23-353A: ALPHV BlackCat
February 27, 2024: SUMMARY Note: This joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) is part of an ongoing #StopRansomware effort to publish advisories for network defenders that detail various ransomware variants and ransomware threat actors. These #StopRansomware advisories include recently and historically observed tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) and indicators of compromise (IOCs) to help organizations protect against ransomware….
School cyber incidents on Long Island: Reported cases rose sharply in 2023
Craig Schneider reports: Long Island schools saw a big increase in the number of reported computer hacks and other cyber incidents in 2023 compared to the prior year, and human error continued to be a major cause of exposing sensitive student information such as special education disabilities and disciplinary problems, records show. Island schools suffered…