2016 averaged 1 healthcare data breach per day

“There was an average of one health data breach per day in 2016, according to the Protenus Breach Barometer, which utilizes information from DataBreaches.net. Protenus recently collaborated with DataBreaches.net to publish the “Breach Barometer Report: Year in Review.” Here are eight additional findings from the analysis.” Read more details here. Author: Erin Dietsche

PCC sends blast email without hiding recipient email addresses

“The Psychological & Counseling Center sent an email out to 468 of its clients on Nov. 10 without blocking the recipients from seeing each other’s names. The content of the email was a satisfaction survey regarding the student’s recent visit to the center. Several students responded to all recipients of the email with sarcastic and […]

Physician offices hit with penalties for HIPAA violations

“Pediatricians in office practices who believe they don’t need to worry about privacy and security investigations related to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) had better think again. HIPAA enforcement has begun exposing all covered entities (e.g., physician offices, clinics, hospitals, etc.) to civil and criminal penalties if proper administrative, technological […]

Cloud Service Providers Beware, You May Be Subject to HIPAA Without Knowing It

“The use of cloud service providers has exploded in the past several years. According to estimates from Gartner, the market for cloud services is expected to reach $204 billion in 2016. But the use of cloud service providers raises significant privacy and security concerns, especially for health care providers who are subject to the Health […]

HIPAA business associate fines putting pressure on healthcare partners

“Regulations set in place by HIPAA certainly hve an impact on partners in healthcare – even those who are just dabbling in the vertical. But when it comes to impacting partners’ wallets, there’s more at risk than just dollars. With fines exetending to channel partners serving healthcare organizations via HIPAA’s business associate agreement (BAA) reaching […]

St. Joseph Health to pay $2 million for HIPAA violations

St. Joseph Health will pay $2,140,500 to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 Privacy and Security Rules. At issue, according to the Office for Civil Rights, which oversees HIPAA rules, were files containing electronic protected health information that were publicly accessible through internet search engines from 2011 until […]

Patients in limbo as cyber attack shuts three hospitals

Thousands of operations and appointments have been cancelled at an NHS Trust after a cyber attack forced management to shut down the computer systems at three hospitals. Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust said the cancellations continued into a third day on Wednesday after the attack took place on Sunday. The trust typically has […]

16 latest healthcare data breaches, security incidents

“Here are the 16 latest healthcare data breaches or security incidents that occurred or were reported within the past four weeks, beginning with the most recent. Keck Medicine in Los Angeles, part of University of Southern California, reported two servers were hit with ransomware in August, encrypting files and making them inaccessible to employees. The […]

Banner Health faces lawsuits after security breach

“Banner Health faces several lawsuits after revealing on Aug. 2 that 3.7 million customers’ medical records were exposed during a sophisticated hack this summer. “The health care industry has been known to have some of the worst cyber security systems of any industry that holds this kind of sensitive information,” said James Bilsborrow, an attorney […]