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Largest Healthcare Data Breaches in 2020
2020 was the worst ever year for healthcare industry data breaches. 616 data breaches of 500 or more records were reported to the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights. 28,756,445 healthcare records were...
View Article2020 HIPAA Violation Cases and Penalties
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) settled 19 HIPAA violation cases in 2020. More financial penalties were issued in 2020 than in any other year since the...
View ArticleHackers Leak Data Stolen in European Medicines Agency Cyberattack
In December, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) suffered a cyberattack and hackers gained access to third party documents. Some of the data stolen in the attack has now been leaked online. The EMA is...
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The Most Common HIPAA Violations You Should Be Aware Of
The most common HIPAA violations that have resulted in financial penalties are the failure to perform an organization-wide risk analysis to identify risks to the confidentiality, integrity, and...
View ArticleJail Terms for HIPAA Violations by Employees
The penalties for HIPAA violations by employees can be severe, especially those involving the theft of protected health information. HIPAA violations by employees can attract a fine of up to $250,000...
View ArticleExcellus Health Plan Settles HIPAA Violation Case and Pays $5.1 Million Penalty
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights has announced the health insurer Excellus Health Plan has agreed to pay a $5.1 million penalty to settle a HIPAA violation case...
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December 2020 Healthcare Data Breach Report
2020 ended with healthcare data breaches being reported at a rate of 2 per day, which is twice the rate of breaches in January 2020. Healthcare data breaches increased 31.9% month over month and were...
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2020 Healthcare Data Breach Report: 25% Increase in Breaches in 2020
More large healthcare data breaches were reported in 2020 than in any other year since the HITECH Act called for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights to start...
View ArticleHIPAA Enforcement by State Attorneys General
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights is the main enforcer of HIPAA compliance; however, state Attorneys General also play a role in enforcing compliance with the Health...
View ArticleRady Children’s Hospital Facing Class Action Lawsuit over Blackbaud...
In May 2020, the cloud software company Blackbaud suffered a ransomware attack. As is common in human operated ransomware attacks, data was exfiltrated prior to file encryption. Some of the stolen data...
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Possible HIPAA Updates and HIPAA Changes in 2021
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was signed into law in 1996 and while there have been some significant HIPAA updates over the last two decades, the last set of major HIPAA...
View ArticlePhiladelphia Department of Public Health Terminates Vaccine Distribution...
Philly Fighting COVID, a company tasked with distributing COVID-19 vaccinations to the city of Philadelphia, has had its contract with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health terminated after...
View ArticleOIG: Two VA Employees Concealed Privacy and Security Risks of a Big Data Project
Two members of the Department of Veteran Affairs’ (VA) information technology staff are alleged to have made false representations about the privacy and security risks of a big data AI project between...
View ArticleFertility App Provider Sued for Sharing User Data with Chinese Firms Without...
A lawsuit has been filed against Burr Ridge, IL-based Easy Healthcare Corp. over the alleged sharing of sensitive user data with third-party firms based in China without user consent. Easy Healthcare...
View ArticlePublic Health Emergency Privacy Act Introduced to Ensure Privacy and Security...
On January 28, 2021, Democratic senators introduced the Public Health Emergency Privacy Act to protect the privacy of Americans and ensure data security measures are applied to safeguard COVID-19...
View ArticleHospital Researcher Jailed for Stealing and Selling Research Data to China
A woman who worked in a medical research lab at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, OH has been jailed for stealing sensitive research data and selling the information to the People’s...
View Article100% of Tested mHealth Apps Vulnerable to API Attacks
The personally identifiable health information of millions of individuals is being exposed through the Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) used by mobile health (mHealth) applications, according...
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January 2021 Healthcare Data Breach Report
January saw a 48% month-over-month reduction in the number of healthcare data breaches of 500 or more records, falling from 62 incidents in December to just 32 in January. While this is well below the...
View ArticleCISA Warns of Active Exploitation of Accellion File Transfer Appliance...
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and cybersecurity authorities Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United Kingdom have issued an alert for users of the Accellion File...
View ArticleFTC Urged to Enforce Breach Notification Rule When Fertility Tracking Apps...
On March 4, 2021, Senator Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey), and Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-New Jersey) and Mikie Sherrill (D-New Jersey) wrote a letter urging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to...
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