Tom Bolton reports that Cottage Health, which suffered a HIPAA breach in 2013 due to a vendor error (by InSync) that exposed over 50,000 patients‘ information, has suffered another exposure breach: Cottage Health’s efforts to protect the confidentiality of hospital patient records suffered a setback earlier this fall when one of its computer servers was found to be…
Category: U.S.
Chinese government has arrested hackers it says breached OPM database
If I knew emojis, I’d include one for “highly skeptical” to accompany this story. Ellen Nakashima reports: The Chinese government recently arrested a handful of hackers it says were connected to the breach of Office of Personnel Management’s database earlier this year, a mammoth break-in that exposed the records of more than 22 million current…
University of Rochester Medical Center settles NYS Attorney General charges stemming from HIPAA breach
Back in May, I noted that University of Rochester Medical Center was notifying 3,000 patients because a departing employee had taken patient information with her for her new employer to use to recruit patients. Now NYS Attorney General Schneiderman has announced a settlement with URMC over the HIPAA breach. The settlement requires the center to pay a $15,000…
State law claims in Anthem breach tossed because ERISA pre-empts
And yet another blow to would-be plaintiffs in data breach litigation: you can’t raise claims under state law if ERISA applies and covers all the claims. Joe Lustig reports: For the second time this year, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has ruled that state law claims arising from Anthem’s February data…
OH: Thousands Of Medical Records Containing Confidential Info Found In Dumpster
Maureen Kocot reports: A good Samaritan says he was surprised when he discovered thousands of documents marked confidential in a dumpster. 10TV examined the documents and found medical records containing patients’ social security numbers, dates of birth, as well as detailed information about medical conditions and prescriptions. […] The Ohio Medical Board says it has…
Home Depot reaches settlement agreement with MasterCard over data breach
David Allison reports: The Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) has reached a contingent settlement with MasterCard International Inc. over the home improvement giant’s massive 2014 data breach. The deal was disclosed Nov. 30 in court filings in federal court in Atlanta. Banks have reached out to see if their members are interested in participating in…