From Verizon: We’ve re-examined the data within our Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) series (2016 and 2017) to focus in on the healthcare sector’s unique profile and security challenges, and particularly the use/abuse of protected health information (PHI). Our 2018 Protected Health Information Data Breach Report (PHIDBR) is underpinned by 1,368 incidents from this caseload…
Category: Health Data
St. Peter’s Surgery & Endoscopy Center notifying 135,000 patients of cyber attack in January
Well, I knew about the incident, but didn’t know until today that the ransomware incident involving St. Peter’s Surgery & Endoscopy Center in Albany, New York affected 135,000 patients.. Now we know.
Survey: 18% of Health Employees Would Sell Confidential Data
Those who said they were willing to sell the data would do so for as little as between $500 and $1,000. Alexandra Wilson Pecci reports: Patients trust their healthcare providers to keep their data safe, but according to a new survey, that trust might sometimes be misplaced. The Accenture survey found that nearly one in…
Tufts Health Plan notifies 70,320 members after vendor error exposes information in envelope window
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…
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,…