Marita Moloney reports: Healthcare group Saolta is investigating a possible data breach at University Hospital Galway. A number of patients had raised concerns after receiving a letter in the post from an organisation calling itself The Anglo American Lottery. The scam letter, which was posted to people’s home address, informs recipients that they have won…
Category: Health Data
Michigan practice folds after cyberattackers wipe out all their files
On March 29, WWMT in Michigan reported: Hacked and held for ransom by a computer virus, a doctor’s office in Battle Creek was forced to close its doors after, doctors said, they refused to pay and their entire system was wiped out. Dr. William Scalf told Newschannel 3 ransomware locked up the system at Brookside…
HHS security policies should focus on incentives, not penalties, health IT leaders say
Heather Landi reports: The federal government needs to provide more resources and incentives to help healthcare organizations better protect their IT systems and data from cyberattacks, according to health IT security leaders. Currently, the Department of Health and Human Services’ privacy and security standards are too focused on compliance and are unduly punitive to healthcare…
Indian govt agency left details of millions of pregnant women exposed online
Catalin Cimpanu reports: A database managed by an Indian government healthcare agency was left connected to the Internet without a password, where it exposed more than 12.5 million medical records for pregnant women, ZDNet has learned. Records go as far back as five years, to 2014, and include detailed medical information for women who underwent…
MO: Burrell Behavioral Health notified more than 67,000 patients whose ePHI were exposed by business associate
On March 29, Burrell Behavioral Health published a news release about an unnamed business associate accidentally exposing ePHI of more than 67,000 patients back in August, 2018. Burrell’s notification, reproduced below, does not indicate when the problem was first detected nor how they learned of it, but it was they who notified their business associate…
DePaul experienced phishing-related data breach, notified 902 health program clients (updated, corrected)
Correction of April 9, 2019: It appears that although DePaul reviewed 41,000 emails, they wound up needing to notify only 902 patients. Sarah Taddeo reports: Local housing and health provider DePaul experienced a data breach in February that exposed some clients’ sensitive information, the organization announced Friday. The incident was deemed a “phishing scam” — a hacking…