The FBI has issued a Private Industry Notification to law firms indicating that a cyber crime insider trading ring is targeting “international law firm information used to facilitate business ventures.” According to the FBI...more
Following the investigation of a self-reported data breach involving the loss of an unencrypted laptop containing the protected health information (PHI) of 13,000 individuals, the OCR slammed the New York based biomedical...more
Most people don’t think about the microphone on their mobile phone unless it isn’t working. Most people don’t know that if it is on, it is working all of the time and is capturing private data that it has access to....more
On March 21, 2016, the FBI and the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a public safety announcement outlining the dangers of cars getting hacked.
The announcement follows the media reporting about...more
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has been stating publicly that it will gear up for its second round of HIPAA audits for some time, and the time has come. The OCR has officially started the next round of audits of covered...more
The list of healthcare entities that have become (and will become) victims of ransomware is rapidly growing. The predictions from experts are that the list will grow exponentially into the future.
Last week, Methodist...more
We previously reported that several states, including Connecticut and Rhode Island, have adopted data security requirements, similar to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ data security regulations that have been in effect...more
Hackers apparently amused themselves by hacking into data security firm Staminus’ database and dumped the information, including customer information and credit card numbers online. Staminus is quick to note that it does not...more
On March 16, 2016, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a press release announcing that it has settled its investigation of North Memorial Health Care System (NMHCS), located in Minnesota, for $1.55 million saying that...more
Premier Healthcare, a multi-specialty group located in Bloomington, Illinois, announced in early March that an unencrypted laptop has been missing from its billing department since early January and started notifying affected...more
We have been waiting for—and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) delivered—its long anticipated broadband data privacy and security rules on March 10, 2015. Through the proposed rules, the FCC has declared its...more
In the continuing saga of health care entities being targeted by hackers, 21st Century Oncology (21st Century) located in Fort Meyers, Florida, late last week began notifying up to 2.2 million current and former patients...more
Financial services firm Raymond James Financial Services Inc. (Raymond James) has agreed to settle an investigation by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for $500,000. The investigation stems from allegations...more
New York federal prosecutors allege in an unsealed indictment that Trevor Gross, a New Jersey pastor at Hope Cathedral and Chairman of a credit union, was bribed $150,000 by illegal bitcoin traders to complete transactions...more
Although numerous states have studied and introduced legislation adopting the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Accounts Act, only three have adopted it thus far. The first was Delaware, which adopted the model digital...more
Home Depot announced on March 7, 2016, that it is agreeing to settle claims against it for the massive data breach that occurred in 2014, affecting up to 56 million debit and credit card holders for at least $19.5 million,...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), in collaboration with over 100 governmental, not for profit and private entities, is spearheading National Consumer Protection week, March 6-12, in an effort to educate consumers about...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), in collaboration with over 100 governmental, not for profit and private entities, is spearheading National Consumer Protection week, March 6-12, in an effort to educate consumers about...more
As I have written before, I am a big fan of the sharing of cyber intrusion information so all industries can learn from one another. No industry is immune from cyber-attacks.
But this is a new one, and good to know for...more
This week’s tip is for businesses, and in particular, the human resources, benefits and finance departments of all businesses. It doesn’t matter what industry you are in or where you or located. It doesn’t matter if you have...more
Confirming what we are seeing in the field, the Ponemon Institute recently released a new report of a poll of 535 healthcare IT and IT security professionals that sets forth a dismal state of affairs around data security and...more
Wading into the foray of enforcement of data security practices, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) yesterday hit Dwolla Inc., an online payment processor with a $100,000 fine for a myriad of violations of the...more
Last month, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a final rule, which creates standards for cybersecurity of the electric grid.
The final rule adopts seven revised critical infrastructure protection...more
Days after hackers held Hollywood Presbyterian’s health information hostage, the Los Angeles County Health Department was hit with a ransomware attack that reportedly affected five computers. According to the Health...more
We previously reported that University of California Berkeley had suffered a data breach affecting 550 students and their families in April 2015. Last Thursday, UC Berkeley announced that a hacker broke into its Financial...more