On October 8, Jeremiah Fowler reported that he had discovered a non-password protected database that contained what appeared to be information regarding healthcare workers and traveling nurses. If you had read the report on Security Discovery at the time, you would have read that almost one million people were potentially affected. Based on that reporting,…
Category: Exposure
Senator Warner wants to know what HHS OCR did in response to massive leak of patient medical images by organizations
This is a press release you may want to really read as it raises a number of important questions to HHS OCR as to how they do things — and how quickly (or not quickly). Nov 08 2019 WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and co-founder of the…
OCR Imposes a $1.6 Million Civil Money Penalty against Texas Health and Human Services Commission for HIPAA Violations
Another settlement announced from HHS tonight. From their press release: The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has imposed a $1,600,000 civil money penalty against the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (TX HHSC), for violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996…
NZ: FMA privacy breach extends to six cases, KPMG to investigate regulator
The New Zealand Herald reports: The Financial Markets Authority is investigating how six cases where sensitive personal information provided to the regulator may have been accessed by third parties. The finance industry watchdog was left scrambling to shore up its online privacy settings after the Herald revealed that emails relating to a confidential complaint were published…
California DMV finds data breach exposed Social Security information for around 3,200 people
Joseph Luiz reports: The California Department of Motor Vehicles has announced that federal agencies were accidentally given access to Social Security information for about 3,200 people. The department said in a statement that it discovered in August that for at least the past four years, the information was accidentally accessible to seven government entities, including…
Facebook Claims It Unknowingly Shared Private Group Data With Partners
Kurt Wagner reports: Facebook Inc. said it unknowingly gave outside developers access to private user information shared within some groups on its main social network, including the names and profile photos of people who were part of those groups. The company disclosed the issue Tuesday, saying that for the past 18 months some third-party developers…