Protenus’s Breach Barometer for August notes that hacking incidents accounted for 54.5% of the health data breaches disclosed in August and 95% of the 673,934 breached records for August incidents. Also of note: Extortion demands and non-automated ransom demands also continue to plague the healthcare industry, although in many cases, media reports and HHS reports make no mention…
California Court Weighs in on the FTC’s Data Security Enforcement Authority
Kade N. Olsen and Craig A. Newman report on a court opinion in the D-Link case – a case that addresses some of the issues also raised in LabMD vs. FTC: Yesterday, a District Court in Northern California weighed in on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) authority to protect consumers from “unfair” and “deceptive”…
Did a media blackout on reporting on TheDarkOverlord allow them to mushroom in the dark?
By the end of 2016, a number of journalists and/or their employers had made an ethical decision not to report on hacks and in-progress extortion attempts by TheDarkOverlord. But did the lack of coverage enable the criminals to expand their operations without any public attention or public pressure on law enforcement to pursue them aggressively? …
Court dismisses lawsuits over OPM data breach
The Hill reports: A District of Columbia court has dismissed two lawsuits over the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) data breach disclosed in 2015. The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal workers union, filed the class action lawsuit against the OPM in June 2015, alleging that the breaches stemmed from gross negligence on the…
OH: Medical Mutual Provides Notice of Data Incident
Medical Mutual of Ohio (Medical Mutual) is taking action after recently discovering that an email containing personal information belonging to a portion of its Medicare Advantage members was inadvertently sent to an incorrect email address. Read more on Northwest Signal (sub. req.)
TX: United Independent School District investigating student hacking incident
KGNS reports: An investigation is underway at a United ISD school after recent allegations were brought to light about students accessing teachers’ computers. The district says that two students from United High School placed a device on several of the educators’ computers. Read more on KGNS.