Erin Mershon reports that a mailing error by health insurer Aetna exposed sensitive information: Thousands of people with HIV received mailed letters from Aetna last month that may have disclosed their HIV status on the envelope. The letters, which Aetna said were sent to approximately 12,000 people, were meant to relay a change in pharmacy…
KS: When your incident response creates a second problem….
On August 16, Salina Family Healthcare posted a substitute notice about a ransomware incident: Salina, Kansas – August 16, 2017 – Salina Family Healthcare Center (“SFHC”) has become aware of a data security incident that may have resulted in the disclosure of personal and protected health information of our patients and payment guarantors. Although at…
Could hackers be behind the U.S. Navy collisions?
Elizabeth Weise reports: Was a hack attack behind two separate instances of Navy ships colliding with commercial vessels in the past two months? Experts say it’s highly unlikely, but not impossible — and the Navy is investigating. Rumors on Twitter and in computer security circles have been swirling about the possibility that cyber attacks or jamming were involved in…
Hacking dominated health data breaches in July – Protenus
Protenus has released its July Breach Barometer, with data supplied by DataBreaches.net. Here’s a snippet from their report: July is the first month in 2017 to have hacking incidents outweigh insider breaches to patient data in both frequency and number of affected patient records. While hacking accounted for almost half of total breach incidents this…
Canadian accused in Yahoo hack pleads not guilty in U.S. court
Reuters reports: In his first U.S. court appearance on Wednesday, Canadian Karim Baratov pleaded not guilty to charges that he helped Russian agents in a high-profile cyber attack on Yahoo email accounts, his lawyer said. Baratov, a 22-year old Canadian citizen born in Kazakhstan, was arrested in Canada in March at the request of U.S….
Why the Russian state ‘weaponised’ stolen medical records of famous footballers
Jason Murdock reports: On Tuesday 22 August, a hacking group released the alleged medical records of 25 football players who had been allowed to use banned medicines during the 2010 World Cup, part of an ongoing series of disclosures centred on stolen therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs). The group claimed that the information was hijacked from…