Representatives Ted W. Lieu (D | Los Angeles County) and Will Hurd (R | San Antonio) sent a letter to Deven McGraw, Deputy Director of the Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) encouraging the office to focus on developing guidance for health care providers to respond to ransomware attacks under…
Category: Of Note
FBI chief says Guccifer lied about hacking into Clinton’s email server
Michael Kan reports: A Romanian hacker’s claim that he broke into Hillary Clinton’s private email server in 2013 was a lie, according to the FBI. Marcel Lehel Lazar, also known as Guccifer, has boasted about the breach to various media outlets, saying in May that it had been “easy.” But on Thursday, FBI director James…
‘KYAnonymous,’ who drew attention to Ohio rape case, indicted by federal grand jury
Greg Kocher reports: Deric Lostutter, the Clark County online activist known as “KYAnonymous” who helped draw national attention to an Ohio rape case, was indicted on four felony counts Thursday by a federal grand jury in Lexington. The indictment says Lostutter violated the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act when he “knowingly and intentionally joined…
NEW: Monthly stats for health/med breaches
People have often asked me if I compile stats on the reports on my site. I haven’t, but am pleased to announce that I am now collaborating with Protenus to help them provide monthly stats for U.S. breaches involving health/medical data. You can read their first blog post on June incidents here. Here’s a snippet…
Circuit Upholds Nosal Conviction in Key CFAA Decision
Ross Todd reports: Ruling in a case that tested the boundaries of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday upheld the conviction of former Korn/Ferry International recruiter David Nosal. Circuit Judge M. Margaret McKeown found that Nosal had knowingly and intentionally…
Business Associate’s Failure to Safeguard Nursing Home Residents’ PHI Leads to $650,000 HIPAA Settlement
This works out to over $1570 per record. Catholic Health Care Services of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia (CHCS) has agreed to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Security Rule after the theft of a CHCS mobile device compromised the protected health information (PHI) of hundreds of nursing…