It’s relatively easy to identify which were the biggest breaches involving health data that were disclosed in 2016, but which of the hundreds of breaches disclosed were the worst ones if you look beyond the numbers? As in past years, we learned of devices with sensitive unencrypted health information being stolen from vehicles, paper records were found where they…
Category: Of Note
Fairbanks Hospital notifies patients after discovering employees could have been inappropriately accessing patient records for years (UPDATED)
Fairbanks Hospital in Indianapolis is notifying an undisclosed number of patients that employees could have been accessing protected health information of patients since at least November 2013 (and possibly earlier). The information that was accessed included current and former patients’ social security numbers, contact information, diagnosis, treatment and health insurance. In a notification dated December 16, the hospital…
Data breach affects almost 400,000 Community Health Plan members (UPDATE2)
Bob Young reports: Almost 400,000 current and former members of the Community Health Plan of Washington have had personal information, including Social Security numbers, exposed in a data breach. The nonprofit, which provides health insurance through Medicaid in Washington, is sending letters to 381,534 individuals Wednesday notifying them of the invasion and steps they can…
Hackers Have Stolen Millions Of Dollars In Bitcoin — Using Only Phone Numbers
Laura Shin reports: Just after midnight on August 11, self-professed night owl Jered Kenna was working at home in Medellin, Colombia, when he was notified the passwords had been reset on two of his email addresses. He tried to set up new passwords himself by prompting the email service to send him text messages containing…
Personal information of more than 100 Quebec judges found in parking lot
CBC reports: A secret list containing the home addresses, phone numbers and names of spouses to dozens of Quebec Superior Court judges turned up in a parking lot, leaving the court’s spokesperson hoping no digital copies were made. […] St-Pierre says the list contained the personal information of 125 Montreal-based Superior Court judges. Copies of this confidential…
Almost 800,000 to be notified because more than 100 Los Angeles County employees fell for a phishing attack
On a single day in May, 108 Los Angeles County employees fell for a phishing attack that affected approximately 756,000 individuals. Here is the press release issued Dec. 16 from the County of Los Angeles Chief Executive Office: The County of Los Angeles today disclosed that it was the victim of a phishing email attack that potentially…