Sage Smiley reports: The American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska said that it uncovered a “massive” violation of medical privacy laws by a software company used by the Alaska Department of Corrections. But the software company at the center of the complaint claims that’s “false and misleading,” and that there was no breach of data…
Category: HIPAA
Senate bill pushes cyber mandates for medical industry in wake of Change Healthcare debacle
Jonathan Greig reports: Hospitals and other healthcare businesses would be required to adopt minimum cybersecurity standards and face annual audits under new legislation introduced by two prominent senators on Thursday. The Health Infrastructure Security and Accountability Act, announced by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Mark Warner (D-VA), would provide $1.3 billion for the Department of…
Silence may not be golden: Visiting Physicians Network still silent one year after alleged data breach?
In September 2023, DataBreaches reported on an alleged ransomware attack involving Visiting Physician’s Network in Texas. The report provided screenshots of data leaked on the Threeam gang’s leak site and noted that Visiting Physician’s Network did not respond to inquiries about the breach. It is now one year later. DataBreaches has found no substitute notice,…
Proposed $65 million Lehigh Valley Health Network data breach settlement may compensate some victims $80,000
In 2023, a ransomware attack against Lehigh Valley Health Network by AlphV (BlackCat) involved the threat actors leaking nude photos of some cancer patients. In reporting on one of the first class action lawsuits launched against LVHN, DataBreaches pointed out how significant this situation and litigation might be, in part, because of the nude photos…
Late Discovery: CMS and Wisconsin Physicians Service Insurance Corporation notify 947k of last year’s MOVEit data breach
Susan Morse reports: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Wisconsin Physicians Service Insurance Corporation are mailing written notifications to 946,801 people whose protected health information or other personally identifiable information may have been compromised in a cyber breach. A security vulnerability was found in MOVEit software, a third-party application used in the transfer…
HIPAA Security Rule Facility Access Controls – What are they and how do you implement them?
August 2024 OCR Cybersecurity Newsletter HIPAA Security Rule Facility Access Controls – What are they and how do you implement them? Available online at https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/security/guidance/cybersecurity-newsletter-august-2024/index.html In today’s environment of increased cyber-attacks and breaches of electronic protected health information (ePHI)1 caused by hacking, malware, or ransomware, HIPAA covered entities2 and business associates3 (collectively, “regulated entities”) may overlook the need for…