I was excited back in 2010 when HHS started posting breaches on what some would call the “wall of shame.” I knew that we’d only learn about breaches involving HIPAA-covered entities, but at least we were finally starting to get some actual data. Now, more than 6 years later, it’s become clear to me that it’s probably best to just call time of death…
Category: Of Note
Careless handling of HIV information jeopardizes patient’s privacy, costs St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center $387k
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services(HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR), has announced a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) settlement based on impermissible disclosure of protected health information (PHI). St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center Inc. (St. Luke’s) has paid HHS $387,200 to settle potential violations of the HIPAA Privacy Rule…
Court Applies Work Product Protection to Breach Investigation Reports
Al Saikali of Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP writes about a key issue that has come up a number of times in discussing incident response and liability: One of the most significant questions in data security law is whether reports created by forensic firms investigating data breaches at the direction of counsel are protected from…
How ECMC got hacked by cyber extortionists
Henry L. Davis provides some greater depth to the coverage of the ransomware attack on Erie County Medical Center: It was 2 a.m. Palm Sunday. Computer screens across Erie County Medical Center flashed white with bright red words: “What happened to your files?” The ransom demands began with hot pink text. “Step1: You must send us…
“Shoot the messenger:” NYC hospital and vendor threaten DataBreaches.net for reporting on their security failure
Vendor’s mistake potentially exposed “millions” of Bronx-Lebanon Hospital patients’ information; Hospital and vendor try to claim that iHealth Solutions was “hacked” by security researchers who uncovered the security problem; Hospital and vendor issue series of demands, threaten DataBreaches.net for reporting on incident; On May 3, Kromtech Security’s research team, conducting routine research, found that confidential and sensitive patient…
Is FBI Telling Hollywood to “Pay the Ransom?”
Tatiana Siegel reports that there have been “at least a half-dozen extortion attempts against Hollywood firms over the past six months alone, say sources in the cybersecurity industry.” And things are so bad, it seems, that: The frequency of the attacks has overwhelmed the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, which has been unable to properly…