Mike Baker reports: Three weeks before hackers infiltrated Premera Blue Cross, federal auditors warned the company that its network-security procedures were inadequate. Officials gave 10 recommendations for Premera to fix problems, saying some of the vulnerabilities could be exploited by hackers and expose sensitive information. Premera received the audit findings April 18 last year, according…
Category: U.S.
Senators blast Anthem for ‘unacceptable’ response after data breach
Sarah Ferris reports: Leaders of the Senate’s health committee are accusing insurer giant Anthem of failing to inform millions of people who may have been affected by a massive data breach last month. Committee chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and ranking member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said Wednesday that 50 million customers who may have been impacted…
MS: Gulfport woman accused in identity theft of hospice patient
There needs to be a special place in Hell for those who take advantage of the seriously ill or disabled. I don’t know if the accused did what she’s accused of, but whoever did should pay dearly for creating stress for a dying woman. Robin Fitzgerald reports: A Gulfport woman is accused of using a…
WA: Premera Blue Cross target of cyber-attack, personal information accessed (update 3)
The Edmonds Beacon reports: Premera Blue Cross announced on Tuesday, March 17 that it was the target of a cyber-attack, and customers personal information was accessed. According to the Premera website, attackers gained access to the IT systems. The attack initially occurred on May 5, 2014, but wasn’t discovered until Jan. 29, 2015. An investigation by…
E. K. and Company notifies clients of stolen hard drive with financial information
I haven’t seen one of these “the data can’t be accessed without specialized software” reassurances in quite a while: Mark Riley, Inc. dba E. K. and Company (“E. K. and Company”) is an accounting and payroll processing company. On January 19, 2015, E. K. and Company’s office was broken into and a hard drive was…
Children’s National Health System notified 18,000 patients after employees fell for phishing scheme
From the Children’s National Medical Center web site: At Children’s National Health System (Children’s National), protecting the security and confidentiality of patient personal and medical information is of the utmost importance. Regrettably, this notice concerns an incident involving some of that information. On December 26, 2014, Children’s National learned that certain employee email accounts had…