In 2021, Quest-owned ReproSource Fertility Diagnostics disclosed a ransomware attack in August potentially affecting 350,000 patients. One month after disclosure, they were sued. Now Marianne Kolbasuk McGee reports that there is a settlement. A Massachusetts federal court preliminarily approved the proposed settlement on Wednesday. The proposed class action litigation, which consolidated two similar lawsuits against…
Category: U.S.
US School Shooter Emergency Plans Exposed in Raptor Technologies Data Leak
Matt Burgess reports: Thousands of emergency planning documents from US schools—including their safety procedures for active shooter emergencies—were leaked in a trove of more than 4 million records that were inadvertently made public. Last month, security researcher Jeremiah Fowler discovered 800 gigabytes of files and logs linked to school software provider Raptor Technologies. The firm…
Erie VA Medical Center says it regrets veteran info disclosure
Keith Gushard reports: The Erie VA Medical Center says it regrets any preventable disclosure of sensitive veteran information and takes appropriate action to inform and protect impacted individuals as quickly as possible. The statement, issued Monday, comes almost eight full weeks after a printing error was discovered about the potential disclosure of limited information that…
Former Executive Sentenced to Probation for HIPAA Violation
Steve Alder reports: Mark Kevin Robison, a former vice president of Commonwealth Health Corporation (now Med Center Health) in Kentucky has been sentenced to 2 years’ probation and ordered to pay $140,000 in restitution after reaching a plea agreement with federal prosecutors over a HIPAA violation. Robison pled guilty to knowingly disclosing the protected health…
After Barrage of Hacks, Hospitals Will Face New Federal Cybersecurity Rules Tied to Funding
Eric Geller reports: The Biden administration plans to unveil new cybersecurity requirements for hospitals in the coming weeks as government officials scramble to stem a disturbing tide of hacks that have crippled health-care providers, delayed procedures and raised concerns about patient safety. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, an arm of the Department of…
HMG Healthcare notifies employees and residents of cyberattack
HMG Healthcare has posted a notice of a data breach on its website, but most people are unlikely to notice the substitute notice because of the way it has been presented. If the purpose of a substitute notice under HIPAA is to reach people the covered entity may not have sufficient or current contact information…