From HHS, this interesting press announcement: Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a settlement under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) with Doctors’ Management Services, a Massachusetts medical management company that provides a variety of services, including medical billing and payor credentialing. The…
Category: Malware
Should Ransom Payments Be Made Illegal?
October 24, 2023 — The Ransomware Task Force was created in 2021 to bring together government, private industry and civil society to create strategies to fight cybercriminal gangs extorting organizations. This year has been challenging with rising attacks, but Megan Stifel of the Institute for Security and Technology says progress is being made. In this…
Stanford University Investigating “Cybersecurity Incident” (1)
Stanford University issued a statement yesterday: The security and integrity of our information systems are top priorities, and we work continually to safeguard our network. We are continuing to investigate a cybersecurity incident at the Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS) to determine the extent of what may have been impacted. Based on our…
Inadequate security measures: the Guarantor sanctions an ASL. The healthcare facility had suffered a ransomware attack
The following is a Google machine translation of a post by Italy’s data protection regulator. It strikes me yet again how entities covered by the GDPR get fined for poor or inadequate security practices that should — but generally do not — incur monetary penalties here: Sanction by the Privacy Guarantor of 30,000 euros to a…
In the throes of bankruptcy and hit by a ransomware attack, Akumin still unable to provide many diagnostic services to patients
On October 18, WFLX reported that Akumin was turning away patients after an apparent ransomware attack. The attack was potentially very concerning because Akumin provides medical scans and radiology services for about 1,000 hospitals and health systems in 48 states, although it is headquartered in Florida. Akumin first noticed suspicious activity on Oct. 11 and…
University of Tokyo PC Infected with Malware in July 2022; Possible Leak of Students’ Addresses, Grades
The Yomiuri Shimbun reports: A computer at the University of Tokyo had been infected with malware, possibly leaking up to 4,341 files containing addresses and grades of students from the academic years of 2003 to 2022, the university said Tuesday. The PC belonged to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the College of Arts…