Idaho State University (ISU) has agreed to pay $400,000 to the U.S. Department of Health Human Services (HHS) to settle alleged violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Security Rule. The settlement involves the breach of unsecured electronic protected health information (ePHI) of approximately 17,500 patients at ISU’s Pocatello Family…
More additions to HHS's breach tool
Two updates within a week? The HHS breach tool is getting a workout. Here is what was added today: Sovereign Medical Group, LLC in New Jersey reported that 27,800 were affected by a breach on October 10, 2012. HHS’s breach tool codes the incident as “Theft, Hacking/IT Incident”, Network Server,” which probably means a hack,…
NYPD detective charged with hacking
Edwin Vargas, a detective with the New York City Police Department (NYPD) has been arrested on hacking charges. Vargas was arrested this morning outside his residence in Bronxville, New York. Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said, “As alleged, Detective Edwin Vargas paid thousands of dollars for the ability to illegally invade the privacy of his fellow officers and others. He is also alleged…
Update: Details on the Delta Dental breach
The other day, in blogging about recent updates to HHS’s breach tool, I noted an entry from Delta Dental of Pennsylvania involving ZDI: Delta Dental of Pennsylvania reported that their business associate, ZDI, suffered a breach involving the loss of paper records for 14,829 patients. The breach occurred on March 20. I was unable to find…
Tonight on Fox Business News: "Medical Identify Theft"
Tonight, The Willis Report‘s investigative series on medical privacy continues with host Gerry Willis and panelists Pam Dixon of the World Privacy Forum and Dr. Keith Ablow, psychiatrist and Fox News contributor. Pam and the World Privacy Forum have been pioneers in increasing public awareness of the risks of medical identity theft. Date: Monday, May…
Chinese hackers who breached Google gained access to sensitive data, U.S. officials say
Ellen Nakashima reports: Chinese hackers who breached Google’s servers several years ago gained access to a sensitive database with years’ worth of information about U.S. surveillance targets, according to current and former government officials. The breach appears to have been aimed at unearthing the identities of Chinese intelligence operatives in the United States who may…