HIPAA

Over 974,000 people are being notified by The University of Washington Medicine. For a three-week period in December, their information was exposed on the internet. A misconfigured server on the UW Medicine database was the cause of the breach. A patient discovered the leaked information while doing a Google search on themselves and contacted the […]

When you go to the hospital, you have faith that you can rely on your medical records, right? That wasn’t the case for Stjepan Tot. Tot died of cancer and, as a lawsuit filed by his estate, wasn’t able to determine when his symptoms first appeared because “his medical records failed to accurately display his […]

In 2013, individuals at Presence Health lost operating room schedules that had the private medical information of patients on them. They discovered the problem and reported the incident to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights (OCR) like you are required to do, but they made a huge mistake because they […]

If you’re a parent, then you know how important choosing a babysitter is. Even though we usually just trust a neighbor and relative to do it, we are handing over the safety of our children to another person, and what’s more important than that? Money certainly isn’t, but protecting the company that employs you and […]

Vermont attorney general TJ Donovan has announced he will fine the Cary, North Carolina-based company SAManage USA Inc. $264,000 as part of a settlement agreement with the data management company stemming from a breach involving the state’s Healthcare Insurance Exchange. The Social Security numbers of 660 users of Health Connect, Vermont’s healthcare exchange, were exposed […]

The OCR has a new enforcement czar, Roger Severino, and he’s out for blood. The chief of the agency that enforces HIPAA told the audience of the 10th annual “Safeguarding Health Information” HIPAA conference that his top priority will be to find a “big, juicy, egregious” breach case to use as an example from which […]

It seems like we can’t go a day without hearing about something on social media. Whether it’s a viral video or President Trump venting, we are more and more reliant on social media for news and entertainment every passing day. We connect with family and friends, we have discussions, we post pictures, and Facebook pages […]

Stolen credit card data can go for up to 15¢. Stolen medical records can net anywhere from $30 to $500, and that’s why you’re going to see more and more cyberattacks on medical facilities. Eerie County Medical Center was recently hit with ransomware. Instead of paying the requested $44,000, they unplugged for six weeks. CBS […]

Cleveland Medical Associates was hit with ransomware back in April and has ordered identity protection service for the roughly 22,000 patients whose identities were at risk. “Wait a second,” you might be saying. “They need to order identity protection service because of ransomware?” Possibly. Regulators are starting to classify ransomware as a data breach, particularly […]

Jason Pierre-Paul had it good. He was drafted by the New York Giants in the first round of the NFL draft and agreed to a 5 year $20.5 million deal. He lived up to his expectations and was a key player for the Giants until 2015. Pierre –Paul plays defensive end, which means he uses […]

Just yesterday we reported on the $155 million fine eClinicalWorks was given for skirting certification criteria. If you look at the fine print though, there’s more to their punishment than money, and it could be even worse. The first stipulation is that eCW has to have an independent review organization. Their job will be to […]

Despite an overall lack of confidence in the security of medical devices, less than 10 percent of manufacturers and only five percent of users actually test the security of their devices each year.  And even though both the providers and the manufacturers voice concern over this issue, it does not appear that an increase in […]

We trust that healthcare companies take every precaution to make sure patient files are as secure as they can be. In fact, not doing so can lead to big fines and other trouble. It’s surprising, then, that a Fortune 500 healthcare company would leave their patient records almost completely unprotected. Security reporter Michael Krebs reported […]

Want to know why databases are dangerous? It’s as simple as putting all your eggs in one basket. If something happens to that basket, you’re out of eggs. But when it comes to databases, those eggs are people’s information. Email addresses, phone numbers, and full names are stored in a database and also happen to […]

Don’t let even a little HIPAA slip go unnoticed.  Presence Health of Chicago was recently fined nearly half a million dollars for failing to alert patients about some missing information. The incident goes back to a paper operating room schedule that went missing in 2013.  The schedule had the names, birthdates and other health information […]

16,000 homes and businesses are set to learn about our book, How HIPAA Can Crush Your Medical Practice, in the pages of the magazine Suburban Living.  Make sure to grab a copy, especially if you work in the medical field!

Eleven gigabytes of health data from SOCOM, the US Special Operations Command, was exposed and ripe for hacker pickings.  The vulnerability had to do with an unprotected remote syncing service, stemming from an improperly configured backup by Potomac Healthcare, a military subcontractor. The security breach was discovered by Chris Vickery, a white hat hacker who […]

When you’re looking for clarity and conciseness, there’s two places you don’t want to go: Legal guidelines and government guidelines. Just try to read a “terms of agreement” or the IRS tax code for proof. But when the Government puts out guidelines for handling private medical records, you need to know what they’re talking about. […]

Did you see the University of Minnesota football team’s bowl game boycott? Believe it or not, it could have a major effect on you and your children’s future and privacy. Ten Minnesota players were suspended from their bowl game because of an investigation into an alleged sexual assault. When the players asked for the reason […]

The year isn’t quite over yet, so there could be a few more attacks, but the year of 2015 saw 57 major cyberattacks against healthcare organizations.  2016 is up to 93 as of the middle of December.  That’s a year-to-year increase of 63%, and it will likely get worse. This data was compiled by TrapX […]