If you have a health savings account (HSA), you may be one of many people who treat it like a savings account or an inactive checking account where you do not check your balance or withdrawals frequently. But your HSA may be an attractive target for fraudsters, and you need to protect it. DataBreaches.net has heard that…
Category: Of Note
Four states’ fishing and hunting licensing sites hacked (update3)
The databases of four state wildlife sporting licensing sites have been hacked, according to an individual who claims to be the hacker. On Monday, an individual calling him/herself “Mr. High” posted the following on an AlphaBay forum: I just hacked four websites and reported the security holes. Two of these were government websites. All of these…
Ashley Madison investigation by Canada and Australia results in compliance agreement
Ashley Madison marketed itself as a “100% discreet service” for people seeking to have affairs — and bolstered that claim with a fabricated security trustmark — but the company behind the website had inadequate security safeguards and policies, an investigation following a massive data breach has concluded. “Privacy breaches are a core risk for any…
Private lives are exposed as WikiLeaks spills its secrets
Raphael Satter and Maggie Michael of AP report: WikiLeaks’ global crusade to expose government secrets is causing collateral damage to the privacy of hundreds of innocent people, including survivors of sexual abuse, sick children and the mentally ill, The Associated Press has found. In the past year alone, the radical transparency group has published medical…
Many hospitals transmit your health records unencrypted
Lucas Mearian reports: About 32% of hospitals and 52% of non-acute providers — such as outpatient clinics, rehabilitation facilities and physicians’ offices — are not encrypting data in transit, according to a new survey. Additionally, only 61% of acute providers and 48% of non-acute providers are encrypting data at rest. Read more about the results…
‘Significant’ security holes in Medicare/Medicaid data
Norman Leahy reports: Medicare and Medicaid have “significant” vulnerabilities in their wireless networks that jeopardize the personal information of millions of citizens, according to a report issued Wednesday. If exploited, the security holes at certain Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data operations could result in “unauthorized access” to personally identifiable information and a possible “disruption…