Recent HIPAA News

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) and Microsoft launched a new project to create guidance on the development and implementation of an effective patch management strategy. After [...]

A new report from Emsisoft, a New Zealand-based cybersecurity company, exposed the magnitude of ransomware usage in cyberattacks in America. 2019’s first 9 months had 621 reports of ransomware attacks on government agencies, healthcare companies, [...]

The 2019 Market Guide for Cloud Service Providers to Healthcare Delivery Organizations (HDOs) has been published by Gartner. It includes a study of the healthcare cloud market and points out how the cloud may be [...]

A new Proofpoint report provides ideas on the cyber threats that healthcare companies run into and the most prevalent attacks that bring about healthcare data breaches. Proofpoint’s 2019 Healthcare Threat Report reveals the evolving threat [...]

Hunt Regional Healthcare based in Texas learned that a May 2018 cyberattack was more extensive than earlier thought. The FBI informed Hunt Regional on May 14, 2019 that an advanced, targeted cyberattack hit its systems [...]

The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business introduced a special healthcare-specific professional cybersecurity certificate program. The professional leadership and educational program is the first healthcare targeted cybersecurity certification program to be made [...]

Three of DCH Health System’s hospitals in Alabama were forced not to accept new patients other than those in a critical state due to a ransomware attack. The staff in DCH Regional Medical Center in [...]

CHI Health in Omaha, NE, a 14-hospital health system, had a ransomware attack, which led to the potential exposure of the protected health information (PHI) of close to 48,000 patients. CHI Health became aware of [...]

On behalf of Kaspersky Lab, a B2B International survey recently performed confirmed there is an increase in the average expense of a data breach at the enterprise-level from $1.23 million (2018) to $1.41 million. The [...]

Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) is informing some patients about the exposure of their protected health information (PHI) because of a phishing-related email security breach at its Southeastern Regional Medical Center, which happened on [...]

There has been an increase in the number of business email compromise (BEC) attacks in the United States. According to Symantec, an average of 6,029 businesses received BEC emails in the last 12 months and [...]

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights consented to a negotiation with Elite Dental Associates concerning its HIPAA violation case relating to the impermissible disclosure of protected health information (PHI) of [...]

Armis Security researchers found 11 vulnerabilities in the Interpeak IPnet TCP/IP Stack, which is a third-party software part utilized in some medical devices and hospital networks. The DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) received [...]

North Florida OB-GYN located in Jacksonville, FL found out that hackers acquired access to selected parts of its computer system holding personal and health information of patients and infected the system with a virus that [...]

A damaging ransomware attack on Wood Ranch Medical in Simi Valley, CA caused its irreversible shutting down on December 17, 2019. The attack took place on August 10, 2019 and the ransomware corrupted the servers. [...]

Sen. Rand Paul, M.D., (R-Kentucky) has announced a new bill that tries to once and for all take away the HIPAA national patient identifier provision considering the privacy problems in using such a system. At [...]

Dr. Ulrich Klopfer operated three abortion clinics in Indiana, but the clinics were closed down upon the suspension of his license in 2015. After his passing away on September 3, 2019, his family members discovered [...]

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is banned from expending any of its funds for the creation and launch of a national patient identifier, although there was anticipation that the prohibition will eventually [...]

Starting October 1, 2019, medical insurance companies and related services must inform the Maryland Insurance Administration (MIA) in case a breach of insureds’ personal data occurs. The change in legislation is applicable to health plans, [...]

Philips IntelliVue WLAN firmware had been found to have two vulnerabilities that affected some IntelliVue MP monitors. The vulnerabilities can be exploited by hackers to install malicious software that could have an effect on data [...]

The Compliancy Group helped CTI Technology, a managed IT service provider located in Elgin, IL, to be certified as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant. CTI Technology used The Guard of Compliancy Group, [...]

Based on a recent investigation by ProPublica, Bayerischer Rundfunk (a German public broadcaster), and Greenbone Networks (vulnerability and analysis firm, 24.3 million medical images in medical image storage systems are publicly accessible on the internet [...]

The National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) created a new draft NIST mobile device security guidance to assist companies to minimize the risks presented by corporate-owned personally enabled (COPE) devices. Mobile devices permit personnel to [...]

Integration Link, LLC, a cybersecurity consultancy services provider and virtual Chief Information Security Officers to small, medium and large businesses, has finished the 6-Stage HIPAA Risk Analysis and remediation process of Compliancy Group. It has [...]

A phishing attack on East Central Indiana School Trust (ECIST) resulted in the exposure of some protected health information (PHI) of over 3,200 people. On May 19, 2019, an ECIST employee was misled into sharing [...]

According to the Global Connected Industries Cybersecurity Survey conducted by Irdeto, a Swedish software company, 82% of healthcare companies utilizing Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices were attacked via one of those devices in the past year. Irdeto [...]

CTI Technology in Elgin, IL, which is a managed IT service provider, has been certified as compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Rules. This was made possible with the help of [...]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) submitted its annual audit report to Congress concerning the cybersecurity status of federal agencies, as ordered by the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA). OMB examined [...]

IT service provider in Wichita, KS, Choose Networks, received its certification of HIPAA compliance with Compliancy Group. The company began operations in 2001 offering enterprise-level IT support to small and medium-sized companies. At present, over 35 [...]

A new research study published in JAMA Network Open revealed that many patients are okay with sharing their EHR data and biospecimens for research purposes; however, the majority of patients would like to limit the [...]

When healthcare providers encounter a data breach, breach victims will naturally be annoyed and upset. People provide their data to healthcare organizations with the understanding that they implement safeguards to protect that information. Whenever patients [...]

A phishing attack on Artesia General Hospital in Artesia, NM resulted to the compromise of 13,905 patients’ protected health information (PHI). The hospital detected the breach on June 18, 2019 when it was discovered that [...]

The agency assigned to implement HIPAA compliance is the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights. Only a handful of HIPAA violations were issued financial penalties prior to 2016. Then, the number [...]

The last phishing attack on Bonita Springs, an NCH Healthcare System based in Florida, highlighted the great importance of providing healthcare employees with security awareness training. Bonita Springs detected the attack on June 14, 2019 [...]

On June 26, a University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) patient filed legal action against UCMC and Google with regards to an alleged privacy violation involving the disclosure of protected health information (PHI) without de-identifying [...]

A phishing attack on NCH Healthcare System in Naples, FL resulted in the exposure of patient information. NCH Healthcare knew about the suspicious activities on its payroll system on June 14, 2019. A third-party computer [...]

The Swedish Data Protection Authority (DPA) issued its first financial penalty for a General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) violation. A high school in Skellefteå was issued a 200,000 SEK fine (€19,000/$21,000) for conducting a pilot [...]

An unsecured database online contains the personal data of individuals who exhibited an interest in Vascepa®, a cholesterol drug that Amarin Pharma manufactures. The database contained information including complete names, telephone numbers, email addresses, home [...]

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) discovered recently the unauthorized access of the computer applications utilized by its Department of Neurology researchers. The person behind the breach could potentially access the protected health information (PHI) of around [...]

Nuvance Health informed some Western Connecticut Health Network (WCHN) patients concerning their protected health information (PHI) exp. CHN sent to the Connecticut State Department of Public Health a package of medical documents on June 11, [...]

The healthcare industry is being attacked with more data breaches. Why do hackers want to target the healthcare industry? FireEye came up with a new report to provide answers to this question. FireEye researchers analyzed [...]

The Western District of Wisconsin US District Court has partly dismissed the class-action data breach lawsuit that UnityPoint Health is facing. In February 2018, employees of UnityPoint Health received phishing emails and responded to them. [...]

A database which comprises of the personal information of men and women who expressed interest in Vascepa®, a cholesterol drug manufactured by Amarin Pharma, was exposed online. The database, which a third party vendor maintained, [...]

Florida’s Integrated Regional Laboratories (IRL) is informing about 30,000 patients regarding the potential compromise of their protected health information (PHI) as a result of the American Medical Collection Agency (AMCA) data breach, which was discovered [...]

medRxiv, a health manuscript archiving firm, recently conducted a study which revealed the prevalent noncompliance with the HIPAA right of access. The researchers of this study mailed 51 healthcare providers requesting for medical record and [...]

Eye Care Associates, a fully integrated eye care provider in the northeast Ohio region, had a ransomware attack in late July which led to the inaccessibility of its computer systems. Two weeks after the attack, [...]

The ransomware attack on Grays Harbor Community Hospital in Aberdeen, WA continues to cause problems after its attack two months ago. The attackers asked for $1 million ransom payment in exchange for the encryption unlock [...]

Because of a phishing attack on April 2019, the University of Missouri Health Care (MU Health) is charged with a lawsuit. MU Health found out on May 1, 2019 the one week unauthorized access of [...]