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Microsoft has announced that a leak of data from its Power Apps portals has exposed the personal details of 38 million users, including names, email addresses, Social Security information, phone numbers, and even Covid vaccination statuses. The software is used by organizations from school systems to corporations like Ford and American Airlines. For their part, […]

What is the National Institute of Standards and Technology? The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is the federal agency that develops and promotes globally-recognized measurement standards. NIST advises the U.S. Government on technical matters, develops and deploys measurement tools, tests materials to develop national standards, provides technical support to U.S. industries, and participates […]

DFARS regulations can really put a cramp in your business. Even though the government more than likely means well and just wants to protect your clients’ data, they sure don’t go out of their way to make the regulations easy to understand or implement. Lucky for you, we here at Petronella Technology Group (PTG) understand what your business […]

To keep you from suspense, we’ll go ahead and tell you that the attack didn’t compromise any data affecting the 2020 census and the perpetrators weren’t able to maintain access thanks to their firewall. That said, it doesn’t appear the Census Bureau handled the attack very well. The zero-day flaw was discovered in December 2019. […]

HIPAA Training: People Are Your Weakest Link (2020 Edition) HIPAA Training: Because People Are Your Weakest Link DID YOU KNOW THE NUMBER ONE CAUSE OF HIPAA VIOLATIONS IS HUMAN ERROR? HIPAA training is the only fix for this. After all, computers don’t click on phishing emails…  Humans do. Healthcare minus HIPAA training is a total […]

Dive down the rabbit hole and find HIPAA help. What Is HIPAA? What is HIPAA Compliance? What is HIPAA Law? What is HIPAA Training? How Do You Report HIPAA Violations? What are HIPAA Forms? 10 HIPAA Security Tips You have HIPAA problems, we have HIPAA help. HIPAA is the “Health Insurance Portability And Accountability Act […]

lt’s HIPAA Compliance, or HIPAA Disaster Or lack thereof, if you’re of the 98%. The magnitude of this stuff is off the charts. The only reason our phones aren’t currently ringing off the hook is because only 2% understand that they are in major trouble, or on course for a federal disaster in regards to HIPAA compliance. The Office for Civil Rights is increasing audits, so 2% will […]

Ransomware: The Worst Global Threat of 2020 (2nd Edition) What is the Ransomware crisis? If you follow current events, you’re aware of a new global threat. It feeds directly into the HIPAA maze. Hindsight is 20/20, and now we all clearly see that the World Wide Web doubles as a Venus Fly Trap. It’s that unique place where […]

What is the HITECH Act? The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) Act is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 that HIPAA stems from, and it encourages the use of electronic health record (EHR) systems through incentivization. The argument could be made that EHR system providers, and the healthcare IT industry as a whole, […]

HIPAA Breach Notification Rule We probably should have titled this “Breach Notification Rule and Encryption.”  Why, you ask?  Because if HIPAA Breach Notification Rule were a question, then encryption would be its corresponding answer. What is the HIPAA Breach Notification Rule?  From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Website: “The HIPAA Breach Notification Rule, 45 CFR […]

What is the HIPAA Privacy Rule?  From  https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/index.html: “The HIPAA Privacy Rule establishes national standards to protect individuals’ medical records and other personal health information and applies to health plans, health care clearinghouses, and those health care providers that conduct certain health care transactions electronically. The Rule requires appropriate safeguards to protect the privacy of personal health information, and sets limits and conditions on the uses and disclosures that may be […]

US Ransomware Attacks: A Matter Of National Security Ransomware is a growing concern of national security in the United States. Last year the country was the victim of  65,000 ransomware attacks, which breaks down to a whopping seven attacks each hour, according to a new report by Recorded Future, a Boston-based cybersecurity company. While these […]

DO YOU WANT TO GET HACKED? This is NOT a drill! In a huge week for Hackers’ News, this is still huge.  On Monday it was announced that BILLIONS of passwords and other sensitive information was leaked on the dark web via a 100GB text file almost 8-and-a-half billion passwords. It’s being called “RockYou2020.” <font […]

In Hackers’ News that NOBODY expected, hacked pipeline giant, Colonial Pipeline, might be getting back a good portion of the almost $5 million ransom they paid last month to the Russian cyberterrorist group, DarkSide. Turns out that notifying the FBI early on in the matter might just have been the right step to take, as […]

Remember simpler times when our biggest concern was being “juice jack” hacked at a public charging station, rather than worrying about whether we could leave our home or not without catching the plague?  In case you were too busy enjoying maskless merry-making to remember the craze from a couple of years ago, “juice jacking,” in […]

If this isn’t a cautionary tale about the importance of cybersecurity, then we aren’t sure what is. It was reported that Colonial Pipeline, the largest refined oil pipeline in the US that was the victim of a cyberattack by DarkSide (a new-ish Russian ransomware group), paid a FIVE MILLION DOLLAR RANSOM on Friday – the […]

After signaling that they were going to start taking cybersecurity more seriously, the Biden Administration announced today that President Biden had signed an Executive Order, making the crackdown official. According to the White House, the Executive Order “makes a significant contribution toward modernizing cybersecurity defenses by protecting federal networks, improving information-sharing between the U.S. government […]

Colonial Pipeline, a company that operates over 5,000 miles of gasoline and jet fuel pipelines from Texas all the way to New York, is the latest known victim of a cyberattack so fierce that they were forced to shut down operations yesterday. Colonial Pipeline carries almost half of the entire East Coast’s fuel supplies.  While […]

Holidays mean downtime for a lot of people, including families and extended families. All that togetherness creates a fantastic opportunity to ring in the new year with tech savvy family technical support. Here’s seven ways to earn that family “Tech Guru” title. Update. Everything. Before you go hunting for elusive tech issues, check to ensure […]