We watch closely for any guidance to HIPAA covered entities and business associates from the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (HHS/OCR). Why? Because there is so little of it. Lately, the only...more
10/10/2016
/ Business Associates ,
Covered Entities ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Protection ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
GAO ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Healthcare ,
NIST ,
OCR
The New Jersey Spine Center was hit with a variant of CryptoWall ransomware on July 27, 2016 that encrypted its electronic health record and its backup files. A double whammy....more
10/7/2016
/ Cyber Attacks ,
Data Breach ,
Electronic Medical Records ,
Hackers ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Healthcare ,
HIPAA Breach ,
Malware ,
PHI ,
Ransomware
I never knew that since 2006, October has been designated as National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month. According to the Department of Health and Human Service’s website, “This year’s Bullying Prevention Awareness Month...more
It has been reported that the White House is investigating a hacking of the Gmail account of a contract worker who was working on the First Lady’s advance team responsible for logistics. The hacking included emails from...more
Trump International Hotels Management has agreed to pay the State of New York $50,000 for two data breaches that exposed over 70,000 customer credit card numbers and other personal information, according to New York Attorney...more
10/4/2016
/ Breach Notification Rule ,
Credit Cards ,
Data Breach ,
Hackers ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Hotels ,
Malware ,
Payment Systems ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Popular ,
Trump Administration
On September 21, 2016, the federal government, through the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration (NHTSA), released “Federal Automated Vehicles Policy: Accelerating the Next Revolution in Roadway Safety,”...more
We previously reported that several U.S. Olympians’ medical records were posted online by the Russian hacking group Fancy Bear.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has confirmed that the medical records of 25 more...more
On September 24, 2016, the Governor of California approved the California Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, which “would authorize a decedent’s personal representative or trustee to access and manage...more
9/30/2016
/ Custodians ,
Decedent Protection ,
Digital Assets ,
Estate Planning ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Internet ,
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) ,
New Legislation ,
Power of Attorney ,
Social Media ,
Wills
In the past few years, we have seen the explosion of “big data,” “data analytics,” “data aggregation,” “predictive modeling,” and “data breaches.”
None of these terms existed when I graduated from law school. We have...more
On Tuesday, September 20, 2016, a federal judge in California granted approval of the $68 million settlement between LifeLock and a class of plaintiffs that alleged it made false statements about the services it provides to...more
9/27/2016
/ Attorney's Fees ,
Class Action ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
False Advertising ,
False Statements ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Identity Theft ,
LifeLock ,
Mediation ,
Passwords ,
Settlement Agreements
Yuba Sutter Medical Center in California (Yuba Sutter) has notified its patients that it has suffered a recent ransomware attack that caused parts of its network to be incapacitated. As a result, patient files were unable to...more
9/27/2016
/ Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Hackers ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Healthcare ,
HIPAA Breach ,
Malware ,
PHI ,
Ransomware
A recent survey conducted by Arlington Research for OneLogin in May 2016 of 1,022 respondents found what most of us already know: employees continue to be a high risk for employers when it comes to security risk.
The...more
The Manhattan District Attorney announced this week that a former employee of Lenox Hill Hospital’s wife plead guilty to grand larceny, identity theft in the first degree, and criminal possession of stolen property after her...more
I have been doing a lot of live employee training lately. I really enjoy it, and have been told that it is some of the most entertaining training around. The reason why I can get the audience to laugh is because I tell real...more
Hacking group Fancy Bear, reportedly a Russian group, who allegedly hacked into the Democratic National Committee emails which made headlines, has posted U.S. Olympians’ medical and drug testing records online. Although it...more
Nakeisha Hall was sentenced in federal district court in August to serve nine years and two months in prison after she plead guilty for crimes she committed while working for the IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service. Instead of...more
I travel a lot and frequently rent cars in cities all over the country. Those of you who know me, (and my husband and children will attest), know that I will not ask for directions. I am definitely more like a man than a...more
9/19/2016
/ Cars ,
Cell Phones ,
Connected Cars ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Data Collection ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Geolocation ,
GPS ,
Location Data ,
Privacy Concerns ,
Smart Car ,
Smartphones ,
Tracking Systems
Apple has issued an urgent warning to iPhone users about a crucial iOS update that is the only way to protect iPhones from “the extremely malicious Pegasus software.”
According to Apple, Pegasus can completely take over...more
9/12/2016
/ Apple ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Weapons ,
Cybersecurity ,
Hackers ,
iPhone ,
Malware ,
Mobile Devices ,
Pegasus ,
Spyware ,
Technology
It was well known in 2012 that Dropbox suffered a data breach when its user names and passwords were compromised. But at the time, Dropbox did not admit the breadth of the compromise. Last week, they admitted that 68 million...more
We have written before about the ability of hackers to file false tax returns to get fraudulent refunds by using the IRS website, and how hundreds of thousands of Americans have become victims of tax fraud.
The IRS...more
MedStar Health Cardiology Associates, (“MedStar Cardiology”) affiliated with MedStar Health, which was recently in the news for a ransomware attack, discovered that an employee sent protected health information of 907...more
Lightspeed, a retail point-of-sale company that provides cloud-based services to 38,000 clients, has reported that its central database, which stores client information on sales, products, encrypted passwords, and in some...more
SCAN Health Plan of California, SCAN Health Plan Arizona, and VillageHealth are in the process of notifying certain plan members and non-plan members of a breach of protected health information, including names, addresses,...more
Orleans Medical Clinic (Orleans) in Indiana has notified the Office for Civil Rights that the protected health information of 6,890 patients was compromised as a result of an upgrade to its server. Orleans is in the process...more
Everybody knows how much I hate USB and thumb drives. The latest scheme is for hackers to leave thumb drives in coffee shops, airports, office buildings, libraries and other public places. These USB and thumb drives contain...more