Category: Uncategorized

Jacques Gallant and Marco Chown Oved  report: At least three GTA [Greater Toronto Area – Dissent] hospitals do not proactively audit their patient records to detect privacy breaches, the Star has learned. A survey of 24 hospitals and health-care centres found that more than half say they check their information systems for inappropriate access at least…

Harold Brubaker reports: Independence Blue Cross on Friday disclosed a data breach affecting 12,500 of its more than 2.5 million members. Unlike most high-profile cases of personal data loss, such as the one at Target stores last year affecting 70 million people, the IBC case did not involve computers. The incident happened in October, when…

Dan Barry of the NY Times reports: Over several decades, an immigrant dug more than 1,500 graves for his fellow patients at Willard State Psychiatric Hospital in upstate New York. He took pride in his shovel’s precision. And when he died in 1968, he joined them in anonymity, his grave — like all the others…

Today’s update to HHS’s public breach tool sheds light on some previously reported breaches and over half a dozen new ones: The armed robbery of a Brigham and Women’s Hospital physician impacted 999 patients. Newly Revealed: North Big Horn Hospital in Wyoming reported that 1,607 patients were affected by a breach on October 2nd involving…

Jason Miller reports: The Veterans Affairs sustained another data breach, putting more than 7,000 veterans at risk of identity theft. A VA spokesman said in an email that a potential flaw in one of its patient databases managed by a vendor to provide home telehealth services may have exposed personal information of veterans. The contractor…

Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) reported the hack involving PHI from its Health and Welfare Benefits Plan  to HHS, thereby hopefully ending the debate in some media as to whether they were a HIPAA-covered entity. According to SPE’s submission, the hack affected 30,000 plan participants or their dependents.