CISA Released Insider Threat Self-Assessment Tool
Public and private industry companies have a new tool that can be used to evaluate how much they are vulnerable to insider threats. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) created this new Insider Threat Risk Mitigation Self-Assessment Tool to help end-users increase their knowledge about insider threats and create prevention and mitigation plans. In the healthcare industry, security efforts are usually invested in...
NCCoE Publishes Final Cybersecurity Practice Guide on Mobile Application Solo Sign-On for First Responders
The National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) just published the latest edition of the NIST Cybersecurity Practice Guide SP 1800-13, Mobile Application Single Sign-On: Improving Authentication for Public Safety First Responders. Public safety and first responder (PSFR) staff need on-demand access to public safety information to be able to give appropriate...
Insider Breach Affects Long Island Jewish Forest Hills Hospital Patients
Long Island Jewish Forest Hills Hospital (LIJFH) has begun informing a number of patients regarding an insider data breach that affected their health records. LIJFH mentioned in its breach notification letters that it discovered an unauthorized medical record access occurrence approximately January 24, 2020. LIJFH received a subpoena for records associated with an investigation by law enforcement into a “No-Fault” motor vehicle...
Data Breaches at Arizona Asthma and Allergy Institute, Stillwater Medical Center and Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services
Arizona Asthma and Allergy Institute sent breach notification letters to 70,372 patients who obtained services between October 1, 2015 and June 15, 2020. As per the breach notice, a selection of their personal data and protected health information (PHI) such as names, patient ID numbers, healthcare provider names, health insurance data, and treatment cost details were exposed on the internet under the name of another organization for...
Third-Party Phishing Attack Impacts Around 34,862 Lafourche Medical Group Patients
Urgent care center operator Lafourche Medical Group located in Louisiana has informed 34,862 patients regarding a security breach that likely impacted their protected health information (PHI). Lafourche Medical Group discovered on March 30, 2021 that a third-party accountant had clicked a phishing email that imitated one of the business owners of Lafourche Medical Group and shared account information with the threat actor. The exposed...
Ransomware Gangs Use New Triple Extortion Tactics
After the DarkSide ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline, a number of ransomware gangs have stopped activity or have executed guidelines that their affiliates are required to follow, which include stopping all attacks on critical infrastructure companies, medical care companies, and government institutions. A few well-known hacking forums are separating themselves from ransomware and have prohibited ransomware gangs from promoting...
Data Breaches Reported by the American College of Emergency Physicians, Epilepsy Florida and VEP Healthcare
The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) has commenced notifying some of its members regarding the unauthorized access of their personal data that was located on a server. Besides offering professional company services to its members, ACEP offers management services to companies such as Society for Emergency Medicine Physician Assistants (SEMPA), the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association (EMRA), and the Emergency...
UPMC and Charles Hilton and Associates Charged With Class Action Lawsuit Due to 36,000-Record Breach
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and the law agency Charles Hilton and Associates are dealing with a class-action lawsuit because of a breach of the protected health information (PHI) of 36,000 UPMC patients. Charles Hilton and Associates, which manages UPMC’s collections, reported that attackers had acquired access to the email accounts of a number of its staff from April to June 2020. As per the investigation...
PHI Exposed as a Result of Data Breaches at Pennsylvania Adult & Teen Challenge And Gore Medical Management
Pennsylvania Adult & Teen Challenge located in Rehrersburg, PA announced that an unauthorized individual obtained access to worker email accounts that included the PHI of 7,771 people. This provider operates addiction treatment programs for adults and youngsters. On July 29, 2020, the provider noticed suspicious things in an email account and had taken action to avert continued access and inspect the incident. The investigation...
$75,000 Paid by Renown Health to Settle its HIPAA Right of Access Case
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is moving forward with its campaign to stop noncompliance with the HIPAA Right of Access. OCR reported its fifteenth settlement this week that resolved a HIPAA Right of Access enforcement action. Renown Health, a Northern Nevada non-profit healthcare network, agreed to pay a financial penalty of $75,000 for its HIPAA case with OCR in order to take care of its...
Philadelphia Department of Public Health Ends Vaccine Distribution Agreement Due to Alleged Privacy Breaches
The contract of Philly Fighting COVID to dispense COVID-19 vaccines in Philadelphia city with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health was terminated because of allegations that the company’s privacy policies possibly made possible the sale of private information to third parties. Philly Fighting COVID started out as a nonprofit company providing coronavirus screening and then switched to supplying COVID-19 vaccinations. The...
$5.1 Million Penalty Paid by Excellus Health Plan to Settle HIPAA Violation Case
Health insurance company Excellus Health Plan agreed to pay the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights $5.1 million as a penalty to settle its HIPAA violation case associated with the 2015 data breach that affected 9.3 million individuals. Excellus Health Plan uncovered the data breach in 2015, the same year when the massive data breaches linked to medical insurance companies Anthem Inc. (78.8 million...
Ransomware Attack Disables Campbell County Health Services
A ransomware attack at Campbell County Health has disrupted hospital services and left the organization unable to access patient information. Campbell County Health, based in Gillette, Wyoming, stated that the ransomware attack began at 3:30 am on Friday, September 20, 2019. The attack caused ‘serious computer issues’ and left the hospital unable to offer many of its services, including respiratory therapy or radiology exams. ...
Over 70 Employee Email Accounts Compromised in Phishing Attack on NCH Healthcare System
NCH Healthcare System is preparing to notify patients that their protected health information may have been compromised in a phishing attack. On June 14, 2019, NCH Healthcare System, based in Bonita Springs, Florida, noticed suspicious email activity on its payroll database. NCH immediately investigated the incident and discovered that 73 employees had replied to a phishing email and therefore had disclosed their account credentials...
Western Connecticut Health Network Patient Information Exposed in Mailing Incident
Western Connecticut Health Network is sending breach notification letters to patients whose protected health information (PHI) may have been exposed in a postal incidence. On June 11, 2019, Western Connecticut Health Network (WCHN), now known as Nuvance Health, sent a box containing medical records to the Connecticut State Department of Public Health using the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). On June 21, WCHN was notified that the box had...
Perry County Medical Center Notifying Patients Following Phishing Attack
Perry County Medical Center, Inc. d/b/a Three Rivers Community Health Group, has announced that it is notifying patients following a phishing attack which saw patient data compromised. Perry Country Medical Center, a health care centre based in Linden, Tennessee, noticed suspicious activity on an employee email account on May 28, 2019. The IT department were quickly notified, and it was discovered that an unauthorized individual had...
Dominion Health Data Breach Affects 3 Million Members
Dominion National is notifying patients of a data security incident that first stated in 2010 and has affected nearly 3 million members. Dominion National is a health insurer, health plan administrator, and administrator of dental and vision benefits based in Virginia. Staff at the organization discovered the breach after an internal alert on their system notified them of suspicious activity. After an initial investigation, Dominion...
Summa Health Notifies 10,000 Patients of Data Security Incident
Summa Health is in the process of notifying 10,000 patients of a data security incident which resulted in sensitive data being compromised. On May 1, 2019, Summa Health, based in Akron, Ohio, noticed suspicious activity on its email platform and immediately investigated the situation. They quickly discovered that an unauthorised individual had gained access to the several employee email accounts and therefore potentially could access...
Union Labor Life Insurance Phishing Attack Affects 87,000 Individuals
A phishing attack at Union Labor Life Insurance (ULLI) has compromised the protected health information (PHI) of more than 87,000 individuals. ULLI, a subsidiary The Ullico Inc., discovered the attack shortly after it commenced on April 1, 2019. The IT department successfully managed to revoke unauthorized access within 90 minutes of the account being compromised. The attack was attributed to an employee responding to a compelling...
Alabama Woman Awarded $300,000 for Privacy Breach at Medical Center Enterprise
A jury has awarded a woman $300,000 in damages following a privacy breach at Medical Center Enterprise (MCE), Alabama. Amy Pertuit’s patient rights were violated when a physician at MCE accessed and disclosed her protected health information to a third party without the proper authorization or consent to do so. This is a breach of HIPAA’s Privacy Rule, which addresses how sensitive patient data may be accessed and disclosed by covered...
Today’s Vision Medical Records Found in Texas Dumpster
The medical records of Today’s Vision patients have been found in a dumpster in Tomball, Texas. Today’s Vision is an optometry services provider with over 50 independently owned clinics. More than 20 boxes of records patients and employees were found in a dump behind the strip mall in Tomball. Soon after the discovery of the boxes, Tomball police retrieved the records from the dumpster. They are now securely stored in the...
Inmediata Breach Notification Letters Sent to Incorrect Addresses
A mailing error at Inmediata has seen breach notification letters being sent to the incorrect addresses. Inmediata was sending the breach notification letters after it was discovered that a webpage that should have only been accessible to Inmediata employees was indexed by search engines and therefore publicly available. This security breach was the result of misconfigured security settings. The compromised webpage contained patient...
DC Attorney General Proposes Stricter Data Breach Notification Laws
Washington D.C. Attorney General Karl. A. Racine has proposed stricter data breach notification laws. He anticipates that the new laws would provide greater protection to DC residents should their data be compromised in a data breach incident. AG Racine introduced the Security Breach Protection Amendment Act on March 21, 2019. This Act updates the definition of ‘personal information’, which means that the types of information for...
14,000 Main Line Endoscopy Center Patients Affected by Phishing Attack
A phishing attack at Main Line Endoscopy Centers has compromised the sensitive data of over 14,000 patients. Main Line Endoscopy Centers, a network of outpatient endoscopy facilities in the Malvern, Bala Cynwyd, and Media regions of Pennsylvania discovered the attack on January 30, 2019. Investigators were unable to determine when the attacker first gained access to the account. The attacker appears to have gained access to the email...
SpamTitan Email Security Solution Now Features Sandboxing and DMARC Authentication
Protecting against zero-day malware and advanced phishing attacks can be a major challenge for SMBs and managed service providers (MSPs). To better protect against these advanced threats, TitanHQ, the leading provider of email security solutions to the SMB market, has added two new features to its award-winning spam filtering solution: SpamTitan. These features were introduced to help SMBs and MSPs serving the SMB market improve their...
Unauthorised Individual Gains Access to St. Francis Health System Patient Data
The Bon Secours St. Francis Health System has announced that unauthorised individual gained access to some of their patients’ protected health information (PHI). The hacker compromised the systems of Milestone Family Medicine, a medical facility based in Greenville, SC. Milestone Family Medicine was affiliated with St. Francis Physicians Services (SFPS) until February 24, 2019. SFPS officials learned of the breach on January 4, 2019....
Cottage Health Pays $3,000,000 to OCR for HIPAA Violations
Cottage Health has agreed to pay a $3,000,000 settlement to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) for two data breaches resulting from HIPAA violations. Cottage Health is a non-profit health provider based in Santa Barbara, California. The organisation operates four hospitals-Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, Santa Ynez Cottage Hospital, Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital, and Cottage Rehabilitation...
FilesLocker Master Key Released, File Decryptor Made Available for Free
Following the leaking of the master key for the FilesLocker ransomware on Pastebin, a decryptor has been made available to allow a victim’s files to be recovered for free. The master key is the key used by those behind a ransomware campaign to decrypt files that have been encrypted by the ransomware. FilesLocker is a ransomware distributed as a Ransomware as a Service, or RaaS; that is to say, even novice cybercrinimals can sign up to...
Rhode Island and Illinois Healthcare Clinics Hit by Ransomware Attacks
The Center for Vitreo-Retinal Diseases in Libertyville, IL, has announced that it was recently the victim of a ransomware attack. The attack was first noticed on September 18, 2018, and resulted in the encryption of data on the organisation’s servers. The investigation into the breach suggests the attacker may have gained access to the protected health information of 20,371 patients that was stored on the affected servers. Ransomware...
Ransomware Attack on Jones Eye Clinic Affects 40,000 Patients
The Jones Eye Clinic and its affiliated surgery, CJ Elmwood Partners, based in Sioux City, Iowa, has announced that up to 40,000 patients may have had their data compromised following a ransomware attack on their systems. The ransomeware attack was discovered on August 23, 2018. Ransomware is software which denies the user access to their device, or certain files on the device, until a ransom has been paid to the scammer. The...
ERS Texas Data Breach Caused by Error in Online Portal’s Code
The Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS) has discovered a flaw in its ERS OnLine portal which allowed some users to view other members’ details upon logging into the portal. Up to 1.25 million records may have been exposed as a result of the error. ERS, a public pension fund with over $21 billion in assets under management, has explained that an error in the website’s code affected the “Annual Out-of-Pocket Premium” function of...
SecureWorks Discovers Cobalt Dickens URL Spoofing Campaign
SecureWorks has discovered Cobalt Dickens, an Iranian threat group, has launched a URL spoofing campaign targeting universities in more than a dozen countries. On their website, SecureWorks stated that security researchers working in their Counter Threat Unit discovered the phishing campaign. Threat actors spoofed a university login page to steal the login credentials of university staff. Further research revealed that sixteen...
417,000 Files Compromised in Augusta Health Phishing Attack
Augusta University Health has announced that a successful phishing attack has resulted in a hacker gaining access to over 417,000 sensitive files. The University of Augusta announced a substituted substitute breach notice posted on its website. The announcement states that the breach was discovered on 31 July. IT security staff changed the password to the affected email accounts, thereby blocking the hacker’s access to the data stored...
UAB Medicine Encounters PHI Breach Due to Missing Laptops
The UAB Medicine Viral Hepatitis Clinic located in Birmingham, AL has encountered a violation of patients’ protected health information (PHI). UAB Medicine employs the use of flash drives to shift data from its Fibroscan machine to a computer device. Two flash drives were discovered to be missing on October 25, 2017. The portable storage devices stored a restricted amount of PHI of 652 patients. Information captured on the devices...
Extortion Attack on Private Information of Sports Medicine Clients
7,000 patients of Sports Medicine & Rehabilitation Therapy (SMART) have been alerted of a possible breach of the private personal information. It is believed the breach, which involved an extortion attempt, may have impacted anyone whose information was taken during a visit to a SMART center before the last day of 2016. The extortion attempt occurred in September 2017 when hackers gained access to SMART systems, allegedly stole...
New MyEtherWallet Phishing Attacks Witnessed
A new wave of MyEtherWallet phishing attacks has been witnessed which use a convincing domain and MyEtherWallet branding to trick MyEtherWallet users into sharing their credentials and providing criminals with access to their MyEtherWallet accounts. In the initial hours of the phishing campaign, the criminals responsible for the scam had obtained more than $15,000 of MyEtherWallet funds, including $13,000 from one MyEtherWallet user....
Flash Player Flaw Used to Deliver FinSpy Malware Exploited by Adobe Patches
Adobe has issued a new update for Flash Player to tackle an actively exploited flaw (CVE-2017-11292) that is being used by the hacking group Black Oasis to send out FinSpy malware. Finspy is not malware as you would expect, it is a legitimate software program developed by the German software company Gamma International. However, its capabilities include a variety of malware-like functions. As the name implies, FinSpy is surveillance...
Matrix Ransomware Campaign Detected by Security Researcher
A new Matrix ransomware malvertising campaign has been detected by security researcher Jérôme Segura. The campaign employs malicious adverts to send users to a site hosting the Rig exploit kit. Flash and IE weaknesses are exploited to install the malicious file-encrypting payload. The Matrix ransomware is not a threat that hasn’t been seen before, having first been experienced in late 2016. The ransomware variant was used in...
Hackers Able to Gain Access Using New Rowhammer Exploit
The Rowhammer exploit was first identified three years ago and was seen enabling hackers to access devices by using DRAM memory cells. Rowhammer attacks uses the close proximity of memory cells, making them leak their charge and change the make up of neighboring memory cells. The cyber attack involves sending constant read-write operations using carefully crafted memory access patterns to constantly activate the same memory rows,...
U.S. Organizations Targeted by FormBook Malware Attacks
The majority of Formbook malware cyber attacks have focused on specific industry sectors in the United States and South Korea, but there is some worry that the malware will be employed in more attacks worldwide. So far, the Aerospace industry, defense contractors and the manufacturing sector have been mainly targeted; however, attacks have not been restrcited to these sectors. The financial services, energy and utility companies,...
Multi-Function Printers Flaw Risks Password Security
Ruhr University Researchers have uncovered significant security flaws in multi-function printers which may be exploited remotely by hackers to shut down the printers, or more worryingly, modify documents or steal user passwords. Hackers might aslo exploit the flaws in order to physically damage printers. The security flaws have already been found in HP, Lexmark and Dell multi-function printers. Twenty such printers are now recognised...
Victims Being Blackmailed by Newly Discovered Ransomware Variant
Proofpoint researchers have recently identified a previously unknown ransomware variant, known as “Ransoc”, which employs various techniques to extort money from its victims. As opposed to the encryption of a broad range of file types and then demanding that a ransom be paid by the victims in exchange of a key to unlock the affected data, in the case of Ransoc the victims are simply blackmailed into making payment. In standard cases...
Recent Discovery of Social Engineering Scam on LinkedIn
A new LinkedIn social engineering scam has been uncovered by researchers at Heimdal Security which tries to convince LinkedIn users to give their personal information. The attackers have been attempting to obtain access to users’ financial data together with identity documents, e.g. passport and driver’s license numbers, which can then be exploited in order to commit identity theft. A rather common social engineering technique,...
Children’s Hospital in Kansas City Alerts 5,500 Patients following Potential PHI Breach
It has been confirmed that Kansas City Children’s Mercy Hospital has now began the process of notifying more than 5,500 patients that portions of their electronic protected health information have been exposed online. It was discovered that personally identifiable information and some protected health information had been uploaded to a website that had been set up by one of the hospital’s doctors. The website was intended to be an...
Confirmation of Ransomware Attack Women’s Health Centre in Kentucky
A sole-practitioner gynaecologist’s clinic in Ashland, Kentucky has become the most recent healthcare provider to be targeted by ransomware attackers. The Department of Health and Human Services’ was recently informed of the attack by Ashland Women’s Health. The healthcare practice indicated that the attack may have allowed its patients’ private health information to be accessed by the attackers. Ransomware attacks should be...
More than 1 Billion Yahoo Accounts Compromised in by 2013 Cyberattack
Yahoo confirmed in September 2016 that it had been the victim of hacking which had compromised approximately half a billion accounts; however, it has now revealed that a Yahoo cyberattack in 2013 was two times as big. Apparently, the details of over 1,000,000,000 users were stolen in the 2013 Yahoo cyberattack. The Yahoo cyberattack acknowledged in September was, at the time, the largest data breach ever reported. The news was...
Medical Colleagues of Texas Hacking Case Affects 68,000 Patients
Medical Colleagues of Texas, a doctors’ alliance in Katy, TX. has found out an illegal person gotten entry to its system having the files of over 68,000 patients. The precise description of the case hasn’t been revealed and an inquiry into the safety break is continuing. The doctors’ alliance was ignorant how access was gotten to its methods at the time of sending the break notification; nevertheless, the inquiry into the break has...
95000 More Patients Revealed to Have Been Affected by Bizmatics Data Break
The OCR has gotten two more break reports from healthcare suppliers affected by the Bizmatics data break. Nearly 95K patients of the 2 healthcare services have possibly had their files accessed by cyberpunks. Southeast Eye Institute P.A, carrying out business as Eye Associates of Pinellas, has informed 87,314 patients of the break, whereas Lafayette Pain Care, PC. has possibly had the files of 7,500 people searched by cyberpunks. Eye...
4K Michigan Chiropractic Patients Informed of Possible Data Break
4,082 sick persons of Complete Chiropractic & Bodywork Therapies (CCBT) have been informed of a possible break of safeguarded health information following malware was found in one of the firm’s servers. The malware was found on 19th March, 2016, when the server failed. The failing of the server triggered CCBT’s safety procedures which incorporated stopping Internet access, separating the server, as well as altering all...
Rogue Worker Thieves 24000 Jackson Health System Patient Files
A Jackson Health System worker is accused of thieving about 24,000 patient files over a duration of 5 years. The unit secretary of the hospital has been put on administrative leave till the end of an internal inquiry into the extended HIPAA infringement. The alleged thievery of patient info has also been informed to law enforcement. Remarkably, the worker has been named but not yet sacked. This indicates that the proof already...
Hawai‘i Medical Facility Association Privacy Infringement Affects 10,800
Autonomous Blue Cross Blue Shield license holder Hawai‘i Medical Service Association (HMSA) has begun sending infringement announcement letters to 10,800 members warning them to a privacy infringement that led to one member’s medical disorder being revealed to another HMSA member. The privacy infringement was triggered by a mistake made with the dispatching of care management letters to members, which led to letters being dispatched...
Advantages of Healthcare Text Messaging Emphasized by New Analysis
Additional evidence has appeared presenting the advantages of healthcare written messaging. A recently published study in the Journal of the American Heart Association obviously indicated that an automatic mHealth interference using Smartphone and text messages tracing applications might prove to be a good approach for rising patients’ physical activity stages. The advantages of rising activity stages, particularly for patients with...
St. Vincent Breast Center Violates HIPAA with 63K-Patient Mailing
The St. Vincent Breast Center, an Indianapolis-based health care provider of analytical services for ladies, has informed that a clerical mistake has led to 63,325 patients getting a mailing having wrong information, containing the names, addresses as well as appointment times of further patients. The letters were dispatched to advise patients of Solis Women’s Health Breast Imaging Specialists of Indiana P.C and the Indianapolis...
Onsite Health Diagnostics Hack Shows 60K-Patient Files
Hackers have penetrated a decommissioned net server at healthcare Business Partner, Onsite Health Diagnostics (OHD), and got access to patient files for a period of 3 months before the incursion was identified. OHD is a Dallas-based subcontractor for offering medical screening and testing services under a health plan managed by Healthways for the state of Tennessee. The business has tens of thousands of protected health files. On...
AHMC Healthcare Omnibus Law Breach Causes 729K HIPAA Violations
The HIPAA Omnibus Law was introduced to make better standards of data safety in the healthcare business and under the new Law, businesses are needed to apply many additional processes to defend the health files of patients. While a number of organizations have updated policies and procedures to make sure conformity with the latest Law, AHMC Healthcare didn’t take action in time to avoid a security violation. Had it have done so, the...
441-Patient HIPAA Infringement Leads to 50K Fine
According to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) rules, healthcare companies are needed to inform data infringements involving over 500 people to the Office of Civil Rights and fiscal fines apply for HIPAA breaches; nevertheless, security violations involving lesser people can still lead to penalties being imposed. During 2010, a laptop was thieved from a community non-profit hospital in Hayden, North Idaho....
UCLA Hospitals Receives $865K HIPAA Penalty for Lacking to Safeguard Superstar Medical Reports
The Division of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights has penalized the UCLA Health System $865,500 for HIPAA breaches triggered by letting the medical reports of 2 superstar patients retrieved by non-authorized people. The 2 patients affected by this safety infringement made objections concerning hospital workers having inappropriate access to their medical reports and alleged the hospital broke the rule by failing to...