Recent HIPAA News

A sophisticated group of hackers targeted the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners attempting to steal login credentials to get access to its network by impersonating WHO’s internal email system. Several WHO staffers received [...]

American HomePatient’s proposal to settle for $1 million a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of the 2017 data breach victims has gotten initial approval. The data breach which led to the filing of the lawsuit [...]

The 2019 Novel Coronavirus was referred to by researchers as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 or SARS-CoV-2. It is the virus behind the Coronavirus Disease 2019 or COVID-19. In November, researchers first discovered the [...]

In February,, 39 healthcare data breaches involving at least 500 records were reported representing a 21.9% increase from January. The breached 1,531,855 healthcare records represent a 231% increase from January. February had more breached records [...]

After the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights announcement that HIPAA compliance enforcement has been relaxed in relation to the good faith provision of telehealth services all through the COVID-19 national public health emergency, OCR released [...]

There were a number of reported incidents of cyberattacks on healthcare companies that are presently working 24 / 7 to make sure patients with COVID-19 get the healthcare they need to have. These attacks result [...]

Maze Ransomware Attack at Texas Network of Walk-in Clinics A Maze ransomware gang attacked AffordaCare Urgent Care Clinic, which is a network of walk-in clinics throughout Texas. A recent DataBreaches.net report stated that the hackers [...]

In trying to stop the passing on of the 2019 novel coronavirus, patients believed of having exposure to the virus and people having signs of COVID-19 were advised to self-isolate at home. It is vital [...]

Cybercriminals are targeting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in an attempt to overload its website with hundreds of thousands of hits. As per the statement of HHS spokesperson, Caitlin B. Oakley, [...]

TigerConnect is the provider of the most popular secure healthcare communications platform in the USA. It declared its support for COVID-19 related communications during the coronavirus pandemic by allowing U.S. health systems and hospitals to [...]

Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Santa Clarita, CA has dismissed a number of its employees because of snooping on the Saugus High School shooter’s health records. Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) [...]

SAR Technology Group has achieved HIPAA compliance following its completion of the proprietary 6-Stage HIPAA Risk Analysis and remediation process of Compliancy Group. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act regulatory requirements ensure the integrity, [...]

Privacy Breach at Harris Health System Harris Health System based in Houston, TX has informed 2,298 patients about the potential exposure of some of their protected health information (PHI). On December 30, 2019, two envelopes [...]

The 2020 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Conference (HIMSS 20) was cancelled because of the persistent spread of COVID-19. Over 40,000 people and 1,300 exhibitors were supposed to go to the conference that was [...]

The Singapore University of Technology and Design researchers identified a group of 12 vulnerabilities referred to as SweynTooth in the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) software development kits that came from around 7 suppliers of software-on-a-chip [...]

Walgreens started notifying customers regarding the potential access of some of their protected health information (PHI) by other people because of an error in the Walgreens mobile app particularly its personal secure messaging feature. The [...]

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted an audit of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The results revealed that technology control flaws in the NIH electronic medical records [...]

It can be a challenging task to satisfy all of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security, Privacy, Omnibus, and Breach Notification Rules requirements. A lot of healthcare providers have established a compliance [...]

Connectria has unveiled the release of a carbon-neutral ‘green cloud’ in its North America and European Union data centers. The brand-new green cloud is being offered to businesses using IBM i and VMware systems. Connectria [...]

There are several healthcare organizations that recently reported phishing attacks namely Tennessee Orthopaedic Alliance, Jefferson Dental Care Healthcare Management, and Munson Healthcare. Phishing Attack on Tennessee Orthopaedic Alliance Tennessee Orthopaedic Alliance (TOA) found out that [...]

BST & Co. CPAs LLC based in Albany, NY was attacked by a Maze ransomware gang and impacted the patients of Community Care Physicians P.C., a New York medical group. A Maze ransomware gang is [...]

In January, there are more than one healthcare data breaches involving at least 500 records per day reported to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights. According to the 2019 Healthcare [...]

The HHS’ Office for Civil Rights persistently enforced HIPAA compliance at the same level as the last three years. In 2019, 10 HIPAA enforcement actions resulted in the issuance of financial penalties. There were 2 [...]

According to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights breach portal statistics, 2019 saw a 196% increase in healthcare data breaches from 2018. There were 510 healthcare data breaches involving 500 [...]

A phishing attack on Overlake Medical Center & Clinics based in Bellevue, WA in December 2019 resulted in the potential compromise of some personal and protected health information (PHI) of 109,000 patients. Overlake Medical Center [...]

Xhibit Telemetry Receiver Vulnerable to Critical BlueKeep Windows Vulnerability The Xhibit Telemetry Receiver (XTR) with model number 96280, v1.0.2, including all versions of the currently unsupported Xhibit Arkon (99999) were found to have critical BlueKeep [...]

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted an audit, which revealed that numerous pharmacies and other healthcare companies are incorrectly using the data of Medicare beneficiaries. OIG performed the [...]

A phishing attack on Wise Health System in Decatur, TX that happened on March 14, 2019 resulted in the potential compromise of some protected health information (PHI) of 66,934 patients. Wise Health System reported to [...]

Ransomware Attack on Central Kansas Orthopedic Group A ransomware attack on Central Kansas Orthopedic Group (CKOG) based in Great Bend, KS in November 2019 resulted in patient file encryption. CKOG discovered the attack on November [...]

Stacey Lavette Hendricks, who is a 49-year-old local of Leesburg, FL, pleaded guilty to wire fraudulence and aggravated identity theft. Hendricks was an employee in a medical clinic who was caught impermissibly accessing the protected [...]

The 2019 Internet Crime Report of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) was just presented. It shows that cybercrime losses in 2019 exceeded $3.5 billion. IC3 received about 1,300 per [...]

Hospital Sisters Health System just lately found out that an email security breach occurred in August 2019. Unauthorized persons potentially accessed e-mail messages and attachments that contain the protected health information (PHI) of 16,167 patients. [...]

Sunshine Behavioral Health Group based in Portland, OR provides business services to healthcare companies. The group reported a breach of its cloud-based system that stored patient medical records because of an accidental misconfiguration. Patient data [...]

The Center for Counseling & Family Relationships (CCFAM) is a big group counseling private practice centered in Fort Worth, TX, which was recently reported as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant after finishing [...]

The new Ponemon Institute research reveals that the occurrence of cybersecurity incidents due to insiders has gone up by 47% in the last two years. The average yearly global cost due to those cybersecurity incidents [...]

The Department of Health and Human Services announced the changes to a final rule of the HIPAA National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP) D.0 Telecommunication Standard requiring pharmacies to keep tabs on partly filled [...]

Dr. Huddle recently announced its completion of the 6-Stage HIPAA Risk Analysis and remediation process of the Compliancy Group. This Cupertino, CA-based startup has been proven to be in compliance with the HIPAA Security, Privacy, [...]

The association of private orthopedic surgery professionals, Fondren Orthopedic Group based in Houston and the nearby areas, encountered a cyberattack that impacted some components of its IT system. The substitute breach notice published on Fondren [...]

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published the 2019 Health Statistics, which showed that healthcare expenditures in the U.S.A. are significantly greater than in other developed countries. According to a 2018 Harvard study, [...]

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights made an announcement  regarding the reversal of the following legislative modifications made to the HIPAA Omnibus Final Rule of 2013: Changes to the Genetic [...]

In December 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights received 38 reports of healthcare data breaches involving 500 or more records exposed, which is 8.57% more than the reported healthcare [...]

The people behind the Maze ransomware are pushing through with their threats on victims to post stolen data during ransomware attacks when the ransom is not paid. In December, Southwire based in Carrollton, GA declined [...]

Pulse Secure customers received an advisory from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to implement the patch for vulnerability CVE-2019-11510 of the 2019 Pulse Secure VPN . Cybercriminals continue to attack unpatched Pulse Secure [...]

On January 1, 2020, the implementation of the California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA) began. CCPA gave state residents more privacy protections and new rights relating to their personal data. Healthcare data that is protected by [...]