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…
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Anonymous no more: Gravedigger finally will get his due at psychiatric hospital
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…
Ho ho how many? Breaches newly disclosed by HHS
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…
Contractor security flaw puts data of 7,000 veterans at risk
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…
Yes, the Sony hack implicates HIPAA
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.
FTC Charges Data Broker with Facilitating the Theft of Millions of Dollars from Consumers’ Accounts
Press release from the FTC: A data broker operation sold the sensitive personal information of hundreds of thousands of consumers– including Social Security and bank account numbers – to scammers who allegedly debited millions from their accounts, the Federal Trade Commission charged in a complaint filed today. According to the FTC’s complaint, data broker LeapLab bought…