As the volume of major health data breaches rises, the federal agency charged with investigating those incidents told Congress this week that it lacks the needed funding to keep up with its mounting workload. The agency also separately announced its second ransomware HIPAA breach settlement.
An Arizona firm that provides administrative services to a dozen ophthalmology practices in several states is notifying nearly 2.4 million patients of a data theft incident. The hack is among the latest recent major data breaches involving vendors of critical services to healthcare firms.
A bipartisan pair of congressmen is again attempting to address long-standing issues of patient safety and privacy - as well as medical errors, inadvertent information disclosures and denied medical claims - which all occur when patients and the health records used to treat them do not match.
Two new guidance resources - one from regulators and the other from an industry council - aim to help healthcare firms strengthen their protection of sensitive patient information and critical IT systems. The publications come as the Biden administration is pushing the sector to up its cyber game.
When a hospital or clinic is hit with a cyberattack, it often seems as if the electronic health record systems just can't win. Even if the EHR system is not the prime target of the attack, it's still frequently taken off line as the organization responds to the incident. What should entities do?
In the latest weekly update, four ISMG editors discussed the relatively low profile of cyberwarfare in recent international conflicts, the potential revival of a dormant HIPAA compliance audit program and the security implications of sovereign AI development.
An Oklahoma-based healthcare system is notifying 2.4 million individuals that their sensitive information was potentially compromised in an exfiltration incident last year. Cybercriminals have been attempting to extort ransom payments directly from some of those affected patients - including kids.
As U.S. federal regulators fine-tune a strategy to push the healthcare sector into strengthening its cybersecurity posture, they are dusting off a HIPAA compliance audit program that's been dormant for the last seven years. A new round of HIPAA audits for regulated entities is in the works.
A new bipartisan Senate bill would require the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to biennially conduct cybersecurity reviews and tests on its IT systems and report to Congress on how it is updating its cybersecurity strategy to keep up with evolving cyberthreats.
The Department of Health and Human Services has finalized regulations to better align federal requirements for the confidentiality of substance use disorder records with privacy protections afforded under HIPAA. The aim is to improve care coordination while enhancing sensitive data protections.
U.S. federal authorities are again warning the healthcare sector about threats from the Akira ransomware group. The latest alert comes on the heels of several recent attacks by the gang, including one last month on Bucks County, Pennsylvania, which affected an IT system used by emergency responders.
The Biden administration's strategy for bolstering health sector cybersecurity, which includes newly released voluntary cyber performance goals and plans to update the HIPAA Security Rule, is fueling uncertainty in some organizations, said privacy attorney Iliana Peters of law firm Polsinelli.
HHS has fined a New York City medical center $4.75 million to settle potential HIPAA violations discovered during an investigation into a hospital insider who sold patient data to identity thieves in 2013. The hospital said it has beefed up its security and privacy since the incident occurred.
A federal judge has denied Kochava's latest attempt to ditch a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit alleging the firm is invading consumers' privacy and exposing them to risk by collecting and selling their location data to third parties. The FTC is also pursuing other cases against data brokers.
Two Chicago hospitals are navigating the effects of recent cyberattacks. One, a children's hospital, has taken its IT network offline to respond to an incident, and the other, a nonprofit safety-net hospital, is being shaken down by cybercriminals asking for a hefty ransom in return for stolen data.
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