From the U.K.’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO): The ICO has fined Marriott International Inc £18.4million for failing to keep millions of customers’ personal data secure. Marriott estimates that 339 million guest records worldwide were affected following a cyber-attack in 2014 on Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. The attack, from an unknown source, remained undetected until…
Category: Of Note
Taiwan’s UMC pleads guilty, fined $60 mln in trade secret theft case
Reuters reports: Taiwan’s UMC has pleaded guilty to trade secret theft in the United States and will pay a $60 million fine in a case where it was accused of helping a Chinese state-owned chipmaker steal secrets from Micron Technology Inc. The fine is the second-largest ever in a criminal trade secret prosecution, the U.S….
Pharma data breaches should stop once data protection law comes into force
Na Vijayshankar reports: Three major cyber attacks in the Indian pharma industry in the last few months have left people wondering whether there is a pattern indicating the reason for this spurt. First was the Breach Candy Hospital one in February 2020 where over 121 million medical records were compromised. Of these, 120 million were…
Federal agencies issue alert: credible information of increased and imminent threat of ransomware attacks on healthcare and public health sector
From a cybersecurity advisory that you need to drop everything and read and then react to proactively. Seriously. The summary alone should make you take note: This joint cybersecurity advisory was coauthored by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)….
Aetna Pays $1,000,000 to Settle Three HIPAA Breaches
A new press release from HHS today reveals that multiple breaches in 2017 contributed to HHS finding significant problems with Aetna: Aetna Life Insurance Company and the affiliated covered entity (Aetna) has agreed to pay $1,000,000 to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and to…
PH: NPC to allow data breach victims to apply for cease-and-desist orders
Jenina P. Ibañez reports: Victims of personal data breaches may request cease-and-desist orders from the National Privacy Commission (NPC) if the breach violates their privacy rights and causes “irreparable injury.” The NPC, in circular no. 20-02 signed on Oct. 6, said that it may issue such orders in the event of violations or threats to…