Yes, it has happened again. Protected health information exposed in an envelope window. Why do entities still use envelopes with windows? Anyway, Tufts Health Plan explains in their notification of February 16, 2018: Subject: Notice of Inadvertent Disclosure of Health Plan Information What happened? Tufts Health Plan uses a vendor to handle mailing of member…
Category: Health Data
Report: Number of Healthcare Records Breached Hit Four-Year Low in 2017
Rajiv Leventhal reports: In 2017, the number of individuals affected by breaches within the healthcare sector reached a four-year low, according to a new report from Campbell, Calif.-based security company Bitglass. The report revealed that the majority of breaches were due to hacking and IT incidents (71 percent), and that percentage has continued to grow…
Memorial Hospital at Gulfport Discloses Email Gaffe
From the hospital’s site: Memorial Hospital Reports Inadvertent Disclosure Posted Date: February 28, 2018 GULFPORT, Miss. —Memorial Hospital at Gulfport has notified approximately 1,500 patients of an inadvertent disclosure of information, including patient names and internal (Memorial) encounter numbers, that was discovered during a routine internal audit. No financial information, Social Security numbers, diagnoses, symptoms,…
Jemison Internal Medicine discloses ransomware event
From their notification of February 16, 2018 to 6,550 patients, a reminder of the value of good backups. But yet another incident where investigation of a new incident uncovers evidence of a previously undetected intrusion: Privacy Event at Jemison Internal Medicine, PC Jemison Internal Medicine, PC (“JIM”) of Jemison, Alabama has advised its patients of…
Santa Cruz Biotechnology notifies employees after burglar snagged their information
From Santa Cruz Biotechnology’s notification template: On Monday, December 18, 2017, we discovered that a burglary had occurred in our Santa Cruz office on or around December 17, 2017. We immediately contacted law enforcement and began an investigation in order to determine what happened and what may have been affected as a result. As a…
FastHealth notifies patients of 2017 incident involving their data
In May, 2017, this site started reporting that a number of healthcare facilities had been impacted by a breach at their vendor, Tuscaloosa-based FastHealth. FastHealth provides website and operational tools and services, including online bill payment. According to FastHealth’s news release at the time, an unauthorized third party had altered code on its web server,…