Jon Camp reports: Navy veteran Sylvester Woodland said he couldn’t believe what he was seeing Wednesday night when he logged onto the Veteran Affairs’ E-Benefits website. “It gave me a different person’s name, each and every time I came back,” Woodland said. At first I thought it was just a glitch, but the more I…
Category: Health Data
Jury Convicts Georgia Woman for Stolen Identity Tax Refund Fraud
A jury in the Middle District of Georgia convicted Kimberly Michelle Banks on Jan. 14, 2014, of conspiring to file false federal income tax returns in the names of stolen identities, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. Banks was also convicted of wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and theft of government money….
AU: Cyber attacks: pharmacies, patient records targeted 'ransomware' attacks
Jake Sturmer and Alison McClymont report: Pharmacists have become the latest targets of sophisticated computer hacks known as ransomware attacks, which lock up PCs until victims pay up. Once the hackers plant the virus, the files on a computer become encrypted and unable to be accessed. Victims have a set amount of time to pay…
Google ads targeting Canadians using personal health info violate Canadian privacy law – Privacy Commissioner
The Canadian Press reports: Canada’s interim privacy commissioner says Google has been caught afoul of the law by displaying web ads linked to a person’s health history. An investigation led by Chantal Bernier, who has stepped in for outgoing privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart, backed up a man’s complaints that he was seeing so-called behavioural advertisements…
So You Found An Obamacare Website Is Hackable. Now What?
Kashmir Hill reports an all-too-common scenario, this one involving security researcher Kristian Erik Hermansen: 1. White-hat hacker discovers vulnerability, tries to notify responsible party. 2. White-hat hacker gets nowhere despite numerous attempts to contact responsible party. 3. White-hat hacker discloses publicly. 4. Responsible party pays attention but is more focused on covering up problem. 5. The…
Required HIPAA breach notification or political dirty trick?
Okay, this is a bit different. On January 4, Coulee Medical Center in Grand Coulee, Washington, posted this notice on its web site: This notice is posted pursuant to federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 breach notification regulations found at 45 CFR Parts 160 and 164 and the Health Information Technology for Economic…