Ransomware groups often promise to keep everything confidential if their victim pays them. They can’t do that if their chats are not secure and someone is able to shoulder-surf or otherwise get access to the negotiations and any files provided by the attackers as proof — or any bitcoin wallet addresses. If victims think or…
Category: U.S.
Indiana University exposes sensitive student data
Jurgita Lapienytė reports: Each year, hundreds of institutions across the US and Canada ask their first-year, transfer, and older students to participate in a survey about their prior academic and co-curricular experiences. They also ask them to share their expectations from the coming year. The survey isn’t anonymous – students are asked to enter their…
AG Platkin Co-Leads $2.5-Million Multistate Settlement with EyeMed Over 2020 Data Breach
NEWARK–Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin announced today that New Jersey is co-leading, with Oregon and Florida, an overall $2.5-million settlement with EyeMed Vision Care (“EyeMed”) that resolves an investigation into a data breach that compromised the personal and medical information of approximately 2.1 million people, including more than 52,000 from New Jersey. Pennsylvania also joined…
HHS Office for Civil Rights Settles HIPAA Investigation with Arkansas Business Associate MedEvolve Following Unlawful Disclosure of Protected Health Information on an Unsecured Server for $350,000
As background: this case began with someone finding an unsecured FTP server owned by MedEvolve. He reported it to DataBreaches. This site first reported on the leak in 2018. This site also reported when MedEvolve issued a statement months later, and again two years later when HHS got them to notify patients. Today, the U.S….
New York audit: School districts unprepared for cyber attacks
Kathleen Moore reports: Student data, including names, birth dates and addresses, are not always kept secure by school districts or the state Education Department, the state Comptroller’s Office found in an audit issued Tuesday. The Education Department “has not taken the fundamental steps or improved the technical controls needed to secure its own critical systems,” the…
Patients concerned after local allergy clinic closes its doors because of alleged data breach
KOCO reports: A local asthma and allergy clinic has closed its doors because of an alleged security data breach. Patients are now concerned that their medical records may have been compromised. Several patients have told KOCO that they are in need of asthma medication from the Oklahoma Institute of Allergy Asthma and Immunology but have…