HIPAA News

1.2 Million Record Data Breach Results in Tampa General Hospital Lawsuit Tampa General Hospital (TGH) is getting sued for a data breach wherein hackers acquired access to the sensitive information of about 1.2 million individuals. […]

As per the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) breach website, there is a 12% month-over-month decrease in the number of healthcare data breaches involving 500 and up records. HIPAA-covered […]

Good Samaritan Hospital Resolves Class Action Data Breach Lawsuit Good Samaritan Hospital located in San Jose, CA, has decided to resolve a class action lawsuit that was submitted because of a data breach that compromised […]

May 2023 was notably bad with regard to healthcare data breaches. There were 75 data breaches involving 500 and up healthcare records reported to the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR). Month-over-month, May’s reported data […]

TimisoaraHackerTeam Ransomware Group Connected to New Attack on U.S. Cancer Center There is an alert concerning a somewhat unknown threat group referred to as TimisoaraHackerTeam after a new attack on a U.S. healthcare center. TimisoaraHackerTeam […]

Patient Information Potentially Lost Because of Mercy Medical Center – Clinton Cyberattack Mercy Medical Center – Clinton has advised 20,865 patients concerning a security incident that impacted its system. It discovered the security breach on […]

New StopRansomware Guide Published by CISA & Partners The StopRansomware Guide has an updated version published including additional recommendations about things to do to minimize the threat of ransomware attacks. This guide is a one-stop […]

Theft of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Member Data During Ransomware Attack Point32Health, the second-biggest health insurance company in Massachusetts, reported in April 2023 that it encountered a ransomware attack that triggered system breakdowns, which include […]

The number of reported healthcare data breaches dropped by 17.5% as 52 cases involving 500 or more data files were reported to the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR). This number is below the 12-month […]

OCR Issues $350,000 Penalty to Arkansas Business Associate for Impermissible ePHI Disclosure The HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has reached a settlement with regards to the Arkansas business associate HIPAA investigation involving the impermissible […]

Pittsburgh Counselor Pays $15,000 Penalty for HIPAA Right of Access Violation The HHS’ Office for Civil Rights reported its 44th enforcement action associated with the HIPAA Right of Access initiative. David Mente, MA, LPC, a […]

Mailing Error at CMS Vendor Impacts 10,000 Medicare Beneficiaries The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has began informing a number of Medicaid beneficiaries regarding an impermissible disclosure of their protected health information (PHI) […]

Monthly data breach reports include data breaches involving 500 and up records that were reported each month to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The monthly reports show the […]

109K-Record Data Breach at Online Alcohol Counseling Service Provider Alcohol addiction and treatment service provider Monument Inc. based in New York recently informed about 109,000 persons regarding an impermissible disclosure of their personal data and […]

In the last 12 months, there is an increase in ransomware and phishing attacks on companies. Costs related to such attacks also increased. According to IBM Security, in 2022, the data breach average cost is […]

Lawsuits Increase Against DC Health Link Because of Congress Members’ Data Breach Online medical insurance marketplace, DC Health Link, is facing no less than two class action lawsuits over a hacking incident that affected 56,415 […]

Over the past three months, the number of healthcare data breach reports has remained somewhat the same. February just had a little increase in breaches with 43 data breaches involving at least 500 records reported […]

3,100 Patients Records Impermissibly Viewed by Beacon Health System Employee Beacon Health System (BHS) based in South Bend, IN reported that an employee accessed the health records of 3,117 patients without valid work reason. BHS […]

HHS Restructuring Needed to Increase Efficiency of HIPAA Enforcement The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has restructured its Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and has established new divisions that are going to […]

January is often a quiet month for healthcare data breaches and January 2023 was no different. There were 40 data breaches involving 500 and up records reported to the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights. The […]

Digital marketing agency, Rise Interactive Media & Analytics, LLC, based in Illinois recently reported that attackers acquired access to its digital platform on November 14, 2022, and possibly viewed or extracted the information of a […]

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently reported the first-ever financial penalty for an FTC Health Breach Notification Rule violation. Allegedly, GoodRx failed to send notification letters to its clients who had their PHI shared with […]

At the end of January, the U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued new enforcement guidance that lets the agency take a more aggressive position on critical violations of the Occupational […]

San Andreas Regional Center Offers to Settle 2021 Ransomware Attack Lawsuit San Andreas Regional Center has decided to resolve a class action lawsuit associated with a July 2021 ransomware attack whereby hackers acquired access to […]

Blackberry has lately released its Global Threat Intelligence Report, which gives useful and contextualized intelligence that may be employed to enhance cyber strength. The report used information gathered by Blackberry and threat intelligence furnished by […]

CommonSpirit Health is facing one more lawsuit because of a ransomware attack and data security breach in 2022 that states the nation’s biggest catholic health system did not use acceptable and proper safety measures to […]

BayCare Clinic Reported Data Breach Related to Pixel The healthcare provider BayCare Clinic, LLP based in Wisconsin lately reported that the protected health information (PHI) of around 134,000 patients was impermissibly disclosed to unauthorized third […]

Using AI in healthcare has a lot of advantages, such as the acceleration of drug creation and the analysis of medical images. However, the same AI systems that help healthcare can likewise be employed for […]

Mayo Clinic has resolved one more lawsuit that resulted from a data breach that involve a previous employee, who was found to have viewed the data of patients with no permission, which includes nude pictures. […]

Although it is hard to get exact information on the number of ransomware attacks being done on healthcare companies, the available information indicates a drop in attacks throughout all industries when compared to the number […]

There are fewer reported healthcare data breaches for two consecutive months. December 2022 had 40 data breaches involving 500 and up healthcare records, which is the lowest monthly number in 2022. The reported healthcare data […]

Healthcare ransomware attacks have increased twofold in the past 5 years, file recovery from backups has dropped, and it is now usual for information to be stolen and released to the public right after a […]

Several lawsuits were filed against Shields Health Care Group in Massachusetts in relation to one of the biggest healthcare data breaches in 2022, where nearly 2 million people were affected. The lawsuits were combined into […]

The health system CommonSpirit Health based in Chicago, IL is dealing with a class action lawsuit due to a ransomware attack in October 2022. Malicious actors accessed its IT network on September 16, 2022, and […]

The practices of acquiring permission from users of Facebook and Instagram to utilize their personal information for marketing purposes have been subject to a lengthy investigation. Finally, Meta has been penalized €390 million or $414 […]

Heartland Alliance located in Chicago, IL, a social justice and human rights organization, announced on December 15, 2022, that it experienced a cyberattack. The organization discovered the security breach on January 26, 2022, and took […]

In June 2022, it was reported that Fitzgibbon Hospital based in Marshall, MO suffered a ransomware attack, which the DAIXIN Team threat group claimed responsibility for. According to the group’s spokesperson, the hospital’s systems were […]

Many ransomware attacks are still carried out on healthcare companies, however, finding out the magnitude to which healthcare providers are being attacked by ransomware groups is a difficult task. Ransomware attack victims do not usually […]

Fertility Centers of Illinois has offered to pay $450,000 to settle a lawsuit submitted on behalf of patients and staff members who were impacted by its data breach in February 2021. On February 1, 2021, […]

November had 31% fewer healthcare data breaches reported compared to October 2022. November had a total of 49 breaches involving 500 and up records, which is below the 58 breaches per month 12-month average. In […]

Plaintiffs in a consolidated class action lawsuit against Meta lately sought an injunction versus Meta to make the company discontinue accumulating and transmitting information gathered from the sites of healthcare companies via Meta Pixel tracking […]

Midwest Orthopaedic Consultants based in Illinois has reported that unauthorized persons accessed its computer system and encrypted files using ransomware. The healthcare provider detected the cyberattack on September 29, 2022, and took steps right away […]

Morley Companies has decided to resolve a class action lawsuit sent in on behalf of persons impacted by a big data breach that happened on or about August 1, 2022. Funding of $4.3 million was […]

Avem Health Partners based in Oklahoma City provides healthcare companies with administrative and technology services. It recently began informing its healthcare clients regarding a data breach that happened at 365 Data Centers, its vendor. 365 […]

An ex-nurse working at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center based in Buffalo, NY was sentenced to serve 37 months in jail for tinkering with and stealing controlled prescription drugs meant for patients with cancer. […]

Citrix Application Delivery Controller (ADC) and Citrix Gateway users are advised to see and ensure that their systems aren’t prone to a critical unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability that a highly capable Chinese advanced persistent […]

Occupational health services provider, Work Health Solutions based in San Jose, CA, has reported the exposure and potential theft of the protected health information (PHI) of 13,157 persons by unauthorized people who got access to […]

The private data of people visiting telehealth websites is being disclosed to big tech firms without the consent of the user because of the tracking code snippets added to websites, based on a recent review […]

The HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) reported an arrangement with a Californian dental practice to settle multiple HIPAA violations associated with a complaint concerning impermissible disclosures of protected health information (PHI) on Yelp, an […]

San Gorgonio Memorial Hospital based in California and Receivables Performance Management based in Washington recently reported data breaches. The latter’s data breach has impacted more than 3.7 million persons. Receivables Performance Management Receivables Performance Management […]

Non-profit healthcare system Conway Regional Medical Center located in north central Arkansas has offered to pay $295,000 to settle a class action lawsuit that was submitted for people impacted by a 2019 data breach. The […]

Mobile health applications creators may need to comply with certain government legislation such as the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), FTC Health Breach Notification Rule, Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act (FD&C Act), FTC […]

Multiple class action lawsuits were filed against Empress EMS, the New York ambulance service, because of a ransomware attack that was discovered on July 14, 2022. The group responsible for the attack was the Hive […]

San Juan Regional Medical Center (SJRMC) based in Farmington, New Mexico, has presented a settlement to take care of a class action lawsuit associated with a data breach in September 2020 that impacted 68,792 individuals. […]

LastPass has announced that hackers acquired access to a third-party cloud storage solution that held customer information, though there was no compromise of user passwords. The hacking incident is associated with the data breach that […]

A team of 10 state Attorney Generals lately sent a letter to Apple CEO, Tim Cook, telling the company to use tougher privacy and security settings for programs accessible via the Apple App Store that […]

There was a small decrease in ransomware attacks in Q3, but it is too soon to say whether that decreasing trend will go on. Despite the decrease in attacks, ransomware continues to be the main […]

563,000 Patients and Health Plan Members Affected by Hacking and IT Incidents Consulting company Health Care Management Solutions LLC based in West Virginia, which provides healthcare for vulnerable individuals including veterans, has just submitted a […]

Hope Health Systems Inc. (HHS) based in Woodlawn, MD has just reported that it suffered a ransomware attack. The healthcare provider detected the attack on June 20, 2022, and engaged third-party forensics specialists to look […]

Gateway Rehabilitation Center (Gateway Rehab) based in Pennsylvania recently reported that it encountered an incident causing access problems to selected systems. Gateway Rehab detected the incident on June 13, 2022 and took quick action to […]

The dermatology practice, Forefront Dermatology, based in Wisconsin has offered to resolve a class action lawsuit filed by patients who had their protected health information (PHI) exposed during a ransomware attack at the end of […]

Wright & Filippis, the prosthetics, orthotics, and accessibility service provider based in Rochester Hills, MI has just reported that it encountered a ransomware attack on its system. The attack happened from January 26 to January […]

There was a worldwide upsurge in cyberattacks in Quarter 3 of 2022. Attacks increased by 28% in contrast to the same period in 2021. Attacks today occur at an average rate of 1,130 every week, […]

Salud Family Health Gives Latest News on September 2022 Ransomware Attack Salud Family Health based in Colorado, a Federal Qualified Health Center (FQHC), just gave the latest information on a cyberattack that happened in September […]

Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania just approved Senate Bill 696. The bill broadens the definition of personal information that is covered in the Breach of Personal Information Notification Act which requires the issuance of notifications […]

A federal grand jury in Memphis charged five ex-employees of Methodist Hospital in Tennessee with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) criminal violations for impermissibly obtaining the protected health information (PHI) of patients and […]

CommonSpirit Health has just given news updates about the development of its recovery effort in response to the October 2022 ransomware attack that impacted numerous services throughout its network. The health system discovered the attack […]

The Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3) has lately provided information on the tactics, techniques, and procedures related to Venus ransomware attacks. It gave a number of tips about mitigations that healthcare groups can carry […]

CommonSpirit Health has lately given an announcement about the development that has been done in recouping from a ransomware attack in October 2022 that impacted a lot of services throughout its network. The health system […]

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital has offered to settle a class action lawsuit that was filed in relation to two privacy breaches where employees accessed medical records without authorization. The Chicago hospital found […]

Aveanna Healthcare has decided to pay the Office of the Attorney General of Massachusetts $425,000 as a financial penalty for not implementing proper safety measures to avoid phishing attacks, thus violating state and government legislation. […]

A number of anesthesia service providers have reported that they were impacted by a data breach encountered by their management services organization (MSO). In October, 13 anesthesia services providers to hospitals were impacted by the […]

President Biden proclaimed November to be observed as Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month. It is a month focused on increasing understanding of the requirement to enhance critical infrastructure and toning up the strength of […]

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has published a YouTube video that tells at length how the HITECH Act amendment in 2021 concerning “Recognized Security Practices” is applicable […]

Passwords are an affordable and easy way of authentication. Although passwords offer a high level of security, the fact is that they are a weak spot that threat actors frequently exploit to acquire access to […]

A Californian appellate court has just announced the lower court’s decision to reject class-action status for a legal action filed against a healthcare provider in California because of an insider data breach that impacted 5,485 […]

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island (ACLU of RI) is filing a lawsuit against the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) and UnitedHealthcare New England (UHC) because of a data breach in August […]

The U.S. government is working on enhancing critical infrastructure cybersecurity. The White House has chosen the healthcare, communications, and water sectors as the next priority areas. The White House is about to release new guidance […]

First, Novant Health stated that the protected health information (PHI) of 1.36 million individuals was transmitted to Meta. Now, Advocate Aurora Health is the second to confirm that it also put the Meta Pixel tracking […]

VisionWeb Holdings based in Austin, TX, a company providing the eye care industry with Internet-delivered software solutions for enhancing practice efficiency, lately submitted a data breach report to the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights indicating […]

Cybercriminals extensively target the healthcare industry in order to access healthcare networks for a variety of nefarious uses. Why are healthcare records remarkably valuable to criminals? Hackers do a lot to gain access to healthcare […]

Radiology Associates of Albuquerque (also known as RAA Imaging/Advanced Imaging, LLC) has lately informed patients about the theft of some of their protected health information (PHI) in a cyberattack that was discovered over A year […]

Aesthetic Dermatology Associates based in Pennsylvania has lately confirmed that unauthorized individuals accessed its network and possibly viewed and/or obtained files that contain the personal data and protected health information (PHI) of 33,793 present and […]

United Health Centers of the San Joaquin Valley (UNC) has offered a settlement deal to take care of a class action lawsuit filed for the sake of patients impacted by its Vice Society ransomware attack […]

Cardiac Imaging Associates based in Los Angeles, CA, has found out that an unauthorized person got access to the email account of an employee. The healthcare provider discovered the incident in April 2022, and took […]

Cytometry Specialists, Inc., conducting business as CSI Laboratories based in Alpharetta, GA, has lately reported that an unauthorized person accessed the email account of a worker and could have seen or acquired the protected health […]

CommonSpirit Health is dealing with a data security incident that has impacted a lot of its healthcare services. Based on an October 4, 2022 statement released by the health system, IT systems were inaccessible online […]

Mon Health is dealing with a class action lawsuit associated with a hacking incident that enabled unauthorized persons to acquire access to its system for 11 days in December 2021. According to Mon Health, it […]

Microsoft was cautioned about the exploitation in the wild of two zero-day vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server. It has discussed mitigations prior to the patching of the vulnerabilities. The two vulnerabilities are being linked together […]

Magellan Health has decided to resolve a class action data breach legal action and will set up a $1.43 million funding to pay for claims submitted by patients impacted by the data breach. Patients whose […]

A warning was released to the healthcare and public health (HPH) community regarding a Monkeypox phishing campaign attacking U.S. healthcare providers that tries to steal Office 365, Outlook, and other email account credentials. Monkeypox is […]

The HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has made a decision to settle three investigations of dental practices for probable violations of HIPAA Right of Access . The three investigations were started after patients filed […]

Google Meet is an innovative VoIP and videoconferencing program that healthcare providers can use to deliver telehealth services, remote consultation services, and virtual patient sessions. However, is Google Meet compliant with HIPAA? Google Meet is […]

For three months now, the reported number of healthcare data breaches has gone down. August had 49 reported breaches involving 500 or more records, which is below the typical 58 breaches a month. The number […]

The Physicians’ Spine and Rehabilitation Specialists of Georgia (PSRSG) has informed 38,765 patients about the potential compromise of some of their protected health information (PHI) in a cyberattack that happened approximately on July 11, 2022. […]

The Ohio law company, Bricker & Eckler LLP, decided to resolve a class action data breach lawsuit filed on behalf of those impacted by a ransomware attack on the company in 2021. Bricker & Eckler […]

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has released a TLP:WHITE Private Industry Notification notifying about persistent cybercriminal efforts attacking healthcare payment processors that endeavor to direct victim payments to accounts controlled by the attackers. These […]

Ambry Genetics has made a decision to settle a class action lawsuit that was due to a breach of the protected health information (PHI) of 232,772 patients. In April 2020, Ambry Genetics informed patients about […]

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has given a private industry notification alert concerning the growing number of vulnerabilities in healthcare devices. When medical devices aren’t immediately patched and are operating on obsolete programs, malicious […]

Emerging technologies could transform the healthcare sector. Although there are lots of potential advantages, these technologies could bring risks that can endanger patient privacy and security. When vulnerabilities aren’t appropriately dealt with, threat actors can […]