On November 16, the Center for Vitreo-Retinal Diseases in Illinois notified HHS of a breach that they coded as “unauthorized access/disclosure” involving PHI on the network server. Here is the notice on their web site that describes what the ransomware incident: The Center for Vitreo-Retinal Diseases has become aware of a potential data security incident…
Category: U.S.
Amendments to data breach notification law in Colorado impact HIPAA-regulated entities
Kiss that 60-days to notify patients HIPAA bit goodbye if you’re doing business in Colorado. Julie A. Sullivan and Loreli Wright of Greenberg Traurig, LLP write: Passed during the 2018 state legislative session, House Bill 18-1128 went into effect on Sept. 1, changing Colorado’s law on the protection of personally identifying information and the procedure businesses must…
Georgia Spine and Orthopaedics of Atlanta notifies 7,012 patients after phishing attack
Another day, another successful phishing attack in the healthcare sector. From the web site of Georgia Spine and Orthopaedics of Atlanta: Georgia Spine and Orthopaedics of Atlanta (“GSO”) was a recent victim of an email “phishing” scam that resulted in unauthorized access to an employee’s email account. “Phishing” involves scammers sending emails that look legitimate,…
OPM to Rebid Identity Theft Protection Contract Affecting Millions of Hack Victims
Eric Katz reports: Millions of current and former federal employees could soon have a new company providing them with credit monitoring and identity theft protections, as the Office of Personnel Management plans to rebid a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The current contract, which OPM signed with ID Experts in the wake of…
NC: Wilmington city employees’ health insurance info exposed by email error by BCBS NC
Emily Featherston reports: Email is no stranger to being linked to cases of identity theft and data breaches. Most of the time, the thief sends a phishing message that coaxes information out of the victim or brings along viruses or malware. However, a single email led to the improper release of the information of 158…
About 2.65M patients at Charlotte’s Atrium Health hit with third-party data breach
Caroline Hudson reports: About 2.65 million patients of Charlotte-based Atrium Health were recently hit with a data breach in which unauthorized parties gained access to their information. Hackers attempted to lift patient information over a weeklong period from Sept. 22-29. The data was stored in a third-party system provided by AccuDoc Solutions Inc., which provides…