On October 29, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the government’s appeal of Conor Brian Fitzpatrick’s sentence. At issue was whether District Court Judge Leonie M. Brinkema had abused her discretion in sentencing Fitzpatrick and whether her sentence was “substantively unreasonable.” Judges have discretion in sentencing and courts are often reluctant…
Category: Of Note
HHS Office for Civil Rights Settles HIPAA Ransomware Cybersecurity Investigation for $90,000
HHS OCR announced a second ransomware investigation settlement today. This one involved Bryan County Ambulance Authority (BCAA), a provider of emergency medical services in Oklahoma. The Bryan County Ambulance Authority breach occurred in November 2021, but was only first reported to HHS on May 18, 2022. It affected 14,273 patients. HHS’s press release (below) notes…
Open Letter to Prioritize Community Cybersecurity
Over on Infosec.Exchange, Wendy Nather mentioned an open letter that is noteworthy for its approach to improving cybersecurity. The letter to presidential candidates’ transition teams, relevant federal agencies, and members of Congress begins: The federal government focuses primarily on cybersecurity as it relates to national security. This priority is essential, but the framing allows many small,…
How many similar breaches can one entity have in one year before regulators do something?
How many data breaches can an entity have before either some regulator steps in with a corrective action plan or something happens to reduce the likelihood of more breaches? Consider the following: Breach # 1 On February 22, 2022, Minuteman Senior Services (MSS) identified suspicious activity related to an employee’s email account. According to the notification…
Albany ENT & Allergy Services settles state charges stemming from two patient data breaches; agrees to spend $2.25M on security program
In April 2023, DataBreaches reported two ransomware groups had each listed Albany ENT & Allergy Services (AENT) on their respective leak sites. But one month later, when AENT sent notifications to regulators and 224,486 affected employees and patients, its notification letter made no mention of any ransomware attack, any encryption of files, any ransom demands,…
U.S. Joins International Action Against RedLine and META Infostealers; unseals charges against Maxim Rudometov (1)
AUSTIN, Texas – The Department of Justice joined the Netherlands, Belgium, Eurojust and other partners in announcing an international disruption effort against the current version of RedLine Infostealer, one of the most prevalent infostealers in the world that has targeted millions of victim computers, and the closely-related META Infostealer. The Justice Department, FBI, Naval Criminal…