Trends & Reports June 17, 2016 OIG Report: Washington State Insurance Exchange Security Places PHI at Risk The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has recently published a report of its investigation into Washington State’s health ... Read more
Security Breaches June 15, 2016 2016 Ponemon Cost of Data Breach Study Published The 2016 Ponemon Cost of Data Breach Study shows that healthcare data breaches cost the most to resolve, and breaches in the United States cost ... Read more
Security Breaches June 14, 2016 Majority of Organizations Unsure of Ability to Protect Data After a Breach A recent study conducted by security firm Gemalto has revealed that a majority of companies are not confident of their ability to prevent data from ... Read more
Tools & Practices June 14, 2016 NIST Cybersecurity Framework Update The National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) has announced that there will be a minor NIST Cybersecurity Framework update in early 2017. NIST sought ... Read more
Cyber Threats June 14, 2016 New T2 Threat Intelligence Service Launched by PhishLabs PhishLabs has launched a new T2 threat intelligence service that provides near-real time intelligence on Advanced Persistent Threats (APT) and spear phishing campaigns. The new ... Read more
Security Breaches June 8, 2016 Mega Data Breaches Prompt Facebook and Netflix to Reset Passwords The mega data breaches at LinkedIn, Adobe, Tumblr, and MySpace allowed hackers to obtain vast numbers of email addresses and passwords. Now that the data ... Read more
Security Breaches June 6, 2016 Ransomware Attacks on US Businesses Soar This year has seen an unprecedented number of ransomware attacks on US businesses. Healthcare providers have also been targeted, with medical services heavily disrupted as ... Read more
Security Breaches June 6, 2016 400,000 Current and Former Prisoners’ PHI Exposed California Correctional Healthcare Services announced last month that an employee left a laptop computer in a vehicle and that the device had been stolen. The ... Read more
Trends & Reports June 6, 2016 US-CERT Issues Warning About the Resurgence of Malicious Macros The use of malicious macros as a method of spreading malware fell out of favor by the start of the new millennium, although over the ... Read more
Tools & Practices June 6, 2016 ONC Releases New Tools Explaining Consumers’ Rights to Access Health Information The HHS’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has released a new set of tools explaining consumers’ rights to access health information under ... Read more
Compliance June 3, 2016 Connecticut Podiatry Office EHR Hack Impacts 40,000 Patients Stamford Podiatry Group P.C. is sending breach notification letters to 40,491 patients to advise them that their protected health information may have been accessed by ... Read more
Trends & Reports May 31, 2016 Healthcare Professionals Committing HIPAA Violations on Yelp A recent ProPublica report has revealed that many healthcare professionals are committing HIPAA violations on Yelp and other review sites when responding to bad feedback ... Read more
Trends & Reports May 31, 2016 New CHIME Cybersecurity Center Tasked with Improving Healthcare Cybersecurity The College of Healthcare Information Executives (CHIME) has announced it has created a new Cybersecurity Center and Program Office to assist healthcare organizations in the ... Read more
Security Breaches May 30, 2016 Tumblr Data Breach: 65 Million Passwords Stolen The Tumblr data breach that was announced just over two weeks ago involved the theft of users’ email addresses and passwords. While it was initially ... Read more
Trends & Reports May 28, 2016 Final Precision Medicine Initiative Security Framework Released The White House has released the final Precision Medicine Initiative security framework, which should be used by participating institutions to achieve the principles laid down ... Read more
Tools & Practices May 28, 2016 Beware of HIPAA Violations When Responding to Yelp Reviews Online reviews of patients’ experiences with healthcare providers can be an invaluable way to gain feedback from patients. Some healthcare providers even encourage patients to ... Read more
Cyber Threats May 26, 2016 Phishing Threat Greater Than Any Other Time in History The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) has released a new report on phishing that shows, during the first three months of 2016, phishing activity was greater ... Read more
Tools & Practices May 25, 2016 OCR Updates HIPAA Guidance for Health App Developers The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has updated its HIPAA guidance for health app developers to make it easier ... Read more
Compliance May 24, 2016 Stronger Ransomware Protection for Hospitals Needed, says CHIME, AEHIS The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and the Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Security (AEHIS) have issued a joint statement calling for ... Read more
Trends & Reports May 24, 2016 How Much Can Covered Entities Charge for PHI Access? HHS Issues Clarification There is a lot of uncertainty about how much covered entities can charge patients for PHI access under HIPAA Rules. Many healthcare providers feel they ... Read more
Compliance May 23, 2016 Have You Started Preparing for a HIPAA Compliance Audit? Have you started preparing for a HIPAA compliance audit? Will you be able to supply compliant documentation to OCR auditors if your organization is selected ... Read more
Security Breaches May 20, 2016 Guidance for Dealing with Ransomware Attacks to be Issued by OCR Many HIPAA covered entities believe that guidance for dealing with ransomware attacks should be issued by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for ... Read more
Trends & Reports May 19, 2016 Ponemon Publishes Report on Privacy and Security of Health Data The Ponemon Institute has released its annual report on the state of privacy and security of health data and found that for the second year ... Read more
Security Breaches May 18, 2016 2012 LinkedIn Data Breach Worse than Feared: 167 Million Users Affected The 2012 LinkedIn data breach was initially thought to have resulted in the theft of around 6.5 million email addresses and encrypted passwords, but the ... Read more
Security Breaches May 16, 2016 Changes to New York Data Breach Legislation Up for Consideration In February this year, State Sen. Michael Venditto introduced a new bill – Senate Bill S6834A – that proposes changes to state legislation covering breaches ... Read more
Compliance May 14, 2016 AHA Calls for Changes to Healthcare Data Privacy Rules The American Hospital Association (AHA) has urged congress to update data privacy rules to align them more closely with HIPAA. At present, the privacy rules ... Read more
Trends & Reports May 13, 2016 New Privacy and Security of Healthcare Data Study Released by Ponemon The Sixth Annual Benchmark Study on Privacy and Security of Healthcare Data has been released this week by the Ponemon Institute. This year’s study has ... Read more
Trends & Reports May 13, 2016 IBM Announces Plans for Watson for Cyber Security Platform A cloud-based version of Watson’s cognitive computing technology will soon be used to process threat intelligence and provide insights on the latest cybersecurity threats. IBM ... Read more
Cyber Threats May 11, 2016 Adobe Warns of Actively Exploited Zero-Day Flash Vulnerabilities Adobe has issued a warning about a new critical security vulnerability that is being actively exploited by hackers. The vulnerability affects Adobe Flash 21.0.0.226 and ... Read more
Compliance May 10, 2016 OCR Warns Hospitals to Prepare for Business Associate Data Breaches The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has recently issued a warning to HIPAA covered entities saying they should be ... Read more