Security Breaches November 11, 2015 Children’s Medical Clinics of East Texas Data Breach: 16K Potentially Affected Further information has been released on the Children’s Medical Clinics of East Texas data breach reported to the Office for Civil Rights late last month. ... Read more
Compliance November 10, 2015 HIPAA Guidance for Emergencies Released by OCR It often takes an emergency situation to realize that policies and procedures are not adequate, and the recent outbreak of Ebola clearly highlighted issues with ... Read more
Trends & Reports November 10, 2015 HIPAA Requires Business Associate Agreements with Contractors All HIPAA-covered entities must have signed Business Associate Agreements with contractors before any PHI is provided. The failure to obtain a signed BAA prior to ... Read more
Cyber Threats November 6, 2015 Mobile Security Threats Increasing Says Kaspersky Lab The number of mobile security threats is increasing, according to a recent security report issued by Kaspersky Labs, one of the leading providers of anti-virus ... Read more
Security Breaches November 3, 2015 Are IT Professionals Underestimating the Probability of a Cyberattack? Probability of A Cyberattack Being Suffered is Underestimated by IT Security Professionals New data released by the Ponemon Institute suggests that IT security professionals may ... Read more
Compliance October 31, 2015 Emergence Health Network Cyberattack Exposes 11,000 Records Another HIPAA-covered entity has reported being targeted by hackers: The Emergence Health Network cyberattack has resulted in 11,000 patient records being exposed to cybercriminals. Social ... Read more
Compliance October 29, 2015 Trust in HIPAA-Covered Entities Ability to Securely Store Healthcare Data Remains Low Earlier this year, a survey conducted by Software Advice indicated that the high volume of cyberattacks, cases of insider theft, and negligence by healthcare providers ... Read more
Compliance October 27, 2015 Accidental Transmission of PHI Causes Two Healthcare Data Breaches Two data breaches have been reported which have been caused as a result of the accidental transmission of PHI, following simple errors made when sending ... Read more
Trends & Reports October 22, 2015 New Employee Healthcare Data Theft Cases Reported There have been a number of cases of employee healthcare data theft reported so far this year, and now two more incidents have emerged. When ... Read more
Cyber Threats October 21, 2015 Cybercriminals Exploiting Bugs in Human Hardware via LinkedIn New cybersecurity vulnerabilities are being discovered on a daily basis, and health IT departments are diverting resources to plug security holes and address software risks ... Read more
Trends & Reports October 20, 2015 Beware of Impostors: Worrying Healthcare Fraud Risk Uncovered The data security threat from malicious outsiders is severe, but a recent breach notice submitted to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for ... Read more
Trends & Reports October 20, 2015 New Healthcare Cybercrime Cost Projections Released Following last week’s announcement of the results of this year’s healthcare cybercrime cost study by the Ponemon Institute/HP, Accenture has analyzed Ponemon’s data (along with ... Read more
Trends & Reports October 19, 2015 New Android Phone Data Security Report Released The timespan between reports of Android phone data security problems is getting shorter. As soon as one major security vulnerability is discovered and addressed, other ... Read more
Security Breaches October 16, 2015 Governor Brown Updates California Breach Notification Law Legislation covering data privacy & security in the state of California is stricter than most other states, and a new trio of bills amending California ... Read more
Trends & Reports October 15, 2015 Health App Privacy Risks Revealed by New Study A new study published by BMC Medicine has revealed numerous health app privacy risks, with 66% of accredited apps under test found not to employ ... Read more
Trends & Reports October 14, 2015 ONC Final Interoperability Roadmap Released It has been a long time coming but the wait is over: The ONC Final Interoperability Roadmap has now been released. The Interoperability Roadmap is ... Read more
Trends & Reports October 13, 2015 Benefits of Texting Patients Include Improved Risk Profiles Something as simple as sending a text message to a patient can have a profound impact on that individual’s health, according to a recent study ... Read more
Trends & Reports October 12, 2015 Meaningful Use Stage 3 Final Rules Released The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) together with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), have released the Meaningful ... Read more
Tools & Practices October 11, 2015 Average Cost of Cyber Crime Resolution Continues to Increase Cyber crime is costing the healthcare industry dearly, and that cost continues to rise. According to the latest survey released by the Ponemon Institute, the ... Read more
Trends & Reports October 10, 2015 Mobile App Developers’ HIPAA Questions to be Answered by OCR The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights is to answer mobile app developers’ HIPAA questions via a new web portal launched ... Read more
Trends & Reports October 8, 2015 ONC Reports 30% Annual Increase in Patient-Physician Secure Message Exchange More physicians are using secure text message services to communicate with patients. According to a recent Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology ... Read more
Trends & Reports October 7, 2015 2015 Cybersecurity Report: Device Loss Main Breach Cause Say Trend Micro A new 2015 cybersecurity report has been published by software security firm Trend Micro, which shows the loss of devices is responsible for causing more ... Read more
Trends & Reports October 5, 2015 OIG Criticizes OCR over Enforcement of HIPAA Privacy Violations Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released two reports detailing the results of reviews conducted to ... Read more
Compliance October 2, 2015 UCLA Health Data Breach Lawsuit: Healthcare Provider Not Liable to Pay Damages The UCLA Health data breach lawsuit filed by plaintiff Norma Lozano after her medical records were inappropriately accessed and disclosed to a third party by ... Read more
Compliance October 1, 2015 When Will the HIPAA Compliance Audits Start? Early 2016, says OCR When will the HIPAA compliance audits start? According to a letter sent by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) ... Read more
Compliance October 1, 2015 Flowers Hospital Data Breach Lawsuit Progresses A Flowers Hospital data breach lawsuit has survived another motion to dismiss. U.S District Judge, William Keith Watkins, has agreed with the recommendations of a ... Read more
Trends & Reports September 30, 2015 VA OIG Investigates Alleged Veterans Privacy Violations The Veteran Affairs Office of the Inspector General (VA OIG) has investigated alleged veterans privacy violations by the Palo Alto Health Care System. In October ... Read more
Compliance September 29, 2015 Medical Device Security Vulnerabilities are Putting Patient Data at Risk A new report presented at the DerbyCon Security Conference on Tuesday has revealed serious medical device security vulnerabilities. The medical device security vulnerabilities are present ... Read more
Security Breaches September 28, 2015 Barrington Orthopedic Specialists Data Breach Reported The Barrington Orthopedic Specialists data breach potentially exposes the Protected Health Information (PHI) of 1,009 patients. The Barrington Orthopedic Specialists data breach occurred when an ... Read more
Security Breaches September 23, 2015 1.5M Records Exposed in Systema Software Data Breach An error by a contractor has caused a Systema Software data breach that exposed the confidential data of upwards of 1.5 million individuals. Data exposed ... Read more