In an unusual move, Delta Airlines (Delta) sued one of its vendors last week for the data breach it experienced in 2017. It’s an unusual move for several reasons. First, in our experience when a vendor causes a data breach, there is usually a contractual provision that can be followed that outlines the responsibility of
Data Breach
New York Governor Signs Bill Expanding Data Breach Notification Law
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Data Breach
New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed a bill into law last week that expands New York’s data breach notification law. The Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security (SHIELD) Act brings the New York data breach notification law on par with other state data breach notification laws that have been amended in the last…
Health Care Organizations Have Highest Costs for Data Breaches
By Jean Tomasco on
As readers of this blog know, data breaches in the health care industry are all too common. Healthcare organizations are an attractive target for hackers because of the nature and amount of personal information that they possess.
Therefore, it is perhaps not surprising that healthcare organizations have the highest costs associated with data breaches. They…
Premera Blue Cross Settles for $10M with 30 States for 2014 Data Breach
Following an investigation led by the Washington Attorney General, Premera Blue Cross has agreed to pay $10 million to 30 states after experiencing a data breach in 2014 that compromised the Protected Health Information of over 10 million individuals. $5.4 million of the settlement amount will be paid to the Washington State Attorney General’s Office…
DNA Information of Thousands of Individuals Exposed Online for Years
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Data Breach
It is being reported that Vitagene, a company that provides DNA testing to provide customers with specific wellness plans through personalized diet and exercise plans based on their biological traits, left more than 3,000 user files publicly accessible on Amazon Web Services servers that were not configured properly.
The information that was involved included customers’…
2018 Cyber Incident & Breach Trends Report “All Bad”
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Cybersecurity, Data Breach
The Internet Society’s Online Trust Alliance just released its “2018 Cyber Incident & Breach Trends Report, which says “2018–Some Better, Some Worse, All Bad.”
That’s our experience, too. Here are the highlights from the report, which can be accessed here.
Although the number of data breaches and exposed records decreased, and ransomware and DDoS…
Customs + Border Patrol Vendor’s Network Compromises Images and License Plate Data
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Data Breach
The United States Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) admitted last week that personal information that it collected from travelers crossing the U.S. borders was exposed in a “malicious cyber-attack” against one of its vendors.
It is being reported that one of CBP’s subcontractors “illegally transferred” to its internal network almost 100,000 photographic images of travelers…
Hackers Indicted for Involvement in 2015 Anthem Data Breach
By Jean Tomasco on
Posted in Data Breach
Earlier this month, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging a Chinese national and another individual as part of an extremely sophisticated hacking group operating in China that targeted large businesses in the United States, including health insurer Anthem. The indictment stemmed from an investigation by the FBI in which Anthem cooperated, earning praise…
Quest Diagnostics Reports Data Breach Affecting 11.9M Patients in Securities Filing
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Data Breach
Another day in the healthc are industry, another big data breach.
This week, Quest Diagnostics announced in a security filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, that a collection agency vendor that it uses for collection services notified it that for eight months, an unauthorized user had access to Quest patients’ records, including credit card…
Diagnostic Medical Imaging Company Pays $3 Million to Resolve Potential HIPAA Violations Stemming from Data Breach
By Jean Tomasco on
Posted in Data Breach, HIPAA and Health Information
The Office of Civil Rights (OCR), the enforcement arm of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), announced that a Tennessee diagnostic medical imaging services company has agreed to pay $3 million to settle potential HIPAA violations arising from a data breach that exposed over 300,000 patients’ protected health information. As part of the…