Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield loses round in data breach litigation
“Justia provides a summary of an opinion issued by the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit that revives a potential class action lawsuit again a New Jersey health insurer. The litigation stemmed from a breach in November, 2013 when two laptops with almost 840,000 members’ personally identifiable information were stolen from Horizon’s offices in […]
‘Hack the Army’ Program Nets 118 Bugs
“And you thought hacking the Pentagon was easy: The US Army last week revealed details of its first bug bounty program. The four-week Hack the Army scheme generated 416 vulnerability reports (nearly 30 percent of which are unique and actionable) and approximately $100,000 for security researchers and bug hunters. The most significant flaw—as reported by […]
United Airlines grounded all domestic flights Sunday due to IT issue
“United Airlines grounded all domestic flights for more than an hour Sunday night due to a computer problem. International flights were not affected, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. A United Airlines aircraft descends onto the runway at Vancouver International Airport (YVR) in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, on Wednesday, November 13, 2013. Six flights were […]
Stolen USB Drive Leads to $2.2 Million HIPAA Breach Penalty
“An insurance underwriter paid a $2.2 million HIPAA breach settlement after a USB drive containing the electronic protected health information (ePHI) of more than 2,200 people was stolen from its IT department, federal authorities announced today. As part of the Jan. 11 agreement, MAPFRE Life Insurance Company of Puerto Rico (MAPFRE) also entered into a […]
Number Of Data Breach Disclosures Jumped 40% in 2016
“Though there were no mega breaches, 2016 had more breaches on record than any previous year, according to a new report. Last year witnessed few data breaches of the kind that rocked 2015 when organizations like Anthem, the Office of Personnel Management and Ashley Madison reported security incidents involving tens of millions of personal records. […]
Foot-Dragging on HIPAA Breach Notice Costs Illinois Health System
“An Illinois health system has reached a $475,000 settlement over allegations it waited too long to report a data breach, the first time the government has settled over untimely breach notifications. Presence Health uncovered a data breach on Oct. 22, 2013 affecting 836 individuals, but didn’t report the breach to affected individuals until Feb. 3, […]
One emoji message can crash your iPhone, if you’re not careful
“Every once in a while, people find strange contraptions that can be used inside the iPhone’s messaging app to crash the recipient’s device. Some of them are serious bugs, while others will only freeze your iPhone for a few minutes. In either case, they’re seriously annoying. And guess what? There’s a new iPhone-crashing text message […]
New strain of credential-stealing malware “Fareit” targeting businesses
“Wanted to share a head’s up re: a new attack we just stopped on multiple customer devices. Turns out it was a new variant of the credential stealing malware “Fareit”. Multiple users at this customer were sent phishing emails with a malicious executable disguised as a PDF labeled “Request for Quotation” (good reminder to configure […]
5 data breach predictions for 2017
“In 2017, most companies have data breach preparedness on their radar. But the threat landscape is ever-evolving. Staying ahead of emerging threats and the increasing sophistication of cybercriminals requires “constant vigilance,” as Mad-Eye Moody from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series was fond of saying. “Preparing for a data breach has become much more complex over […]
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