Protenus, Inc. has released its 2017 review of breaches involving health data. It is the second annual review they have published since we began collaborating on data collection and analyses. As a reminder of last year’s major findings: Protenus reported that in 2016, insider incidents constituted approximately 43% of the 450 incidents we had compiled…
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December was one of the busiest months for health data breach disclosures
While you are eagerly awaiting the release of Protenus’s annual review of 2017 health data breaches, I thought I’d mention that December closed the year out with a bang with 52 possible breaches being disclosed. Only June, 2017 (with 53 reports) exceeded December. Of the 52 entries, 20 were hacking incidents and 17 were insider…
Idaho school works to recover data weeks after cyberattack
Julie Wootton-Greener reports that Jerome School District in Idaho is still working on recovering from a ransomware attack that they discovered on December 11. Readers may recall that at the time, the ransom amount was the equivalent of USD $65,000 and the district decided not to pay it as they felt they could recover from…
Hancock Health pays $55,000 ransom after SamSam locked up 1400 files; no patient data stolen
Samm Quinn has an update on the Hancock Health ransomware incident first reported the other day. The hospital ultimately paid a $55,000 (4 BTC) ransom to regain access to its systems, because although it could restore from backup, it would have taken more time. The hackers targeted more than 1,400 files, the names of every…
North Carolina introduces data breach legislation
Bradley Barth reports: More than 5.3 million residents of North Carolina were victims of data breaches in 2017 – an escalating trend that has prompted state Attorney General Josh Stein (D) and state Rep. Jason Saine (R) to introduce newly proposed legislation to prevent further incidents and protect the public. Unveiled on Jan. 8, the…
Two Hong Kong travel agencies reveal hacks and ransom demands
Ernest Kao, Danny Lee, and Christy Leung report that two travel agencies have disclosed that they have been hacked and ransom demanded. It’s not totally clear from their statements whether these are both ransomware incidents and if they’re by the same threat actor(s). SCMP reports: Goldjoy, which has three branches, revealed on Thursday that unauthorised…