Canon U.S.A. Inc. (Canon) was hit with a class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York this week for the ransomware attack that exposed current and former employees’ personal information in November 2020. The plaintiffs reside in Ohio, New York, Florida and Illinois, and allege that Canon was
GEO Group Hit with Ransomware Attack
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Cybersecurity
The GEO Group, Inc. (GEO), a publicly held company located in Boca Raton Florida, announced on November 3, 2020, that it is beginning to notify individuals following a ransomware attack that “impacted a limited amount of personally identifiable information and protected health information for some inmates and residents contained on certain servers for a small…
Is this City Monitoring Me?
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Data Privacy
In Coral Gables, Florida, a judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit over the city’s use of automated license plate readers to scan license plates. This technology has faced a number of lawsuits over concerns about the collection and storage of data. The Coral Gables lawsuit stemmed from a Miami suburb resident who filed a request…
Super Bowl LIV—No Drone Zone
By Kathryn Rattigan on
Posted in Drones
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), along with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, is informing drone operators of the restrictions on drone flights before, during and after Super Bowl LIV on Sunday, February 2 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. The FAA expects more than 2,500 additional take-offs and landings and almost…
OCR Announces Second $85,000 Settlement for Alleged Violations of the Individual Right of Access under HIPAA
By Conor Duffy on
On December 12, 2019, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced its second “HIPAA Right of Access Initiative” settlement of alleged HIPAA violations.
The HIPAA Right of Access Initiative is a new effort in 2019 by OCR to monitor compliance with HIPAA requirements addressing patient rights to promptly…
Florida Municipalities Getting Hammered with Ransomware
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Cybersecurity
Security researchers have warned municipalities repeatedly about how they are being targeted with ransomware, that they are at high risk, and the need to make data security a high priority.
Municipalities are unfortunately only taking heed now that recent ransomware campaigns are in the news and bringing some municipalities to their knees [view related posts…
Model Rule for Securities Administrators Approved by NASAA
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Cybersecurity
The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) this week approved an information security model rule package aimed at improving the cybersecurity posture of the 17,543 state-registered advisers.
The proposed model would require state-registered investment advisers to establish written cybersecurity policies and procedures designed to safeguard clients’ records and information, and to deliver its privacy policy…
FAA Investigates Near Drone-Helicopter Collision
By Kathryn Rattigan on
Posted in Drones
Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) began investigating a YouTube video that shows a helicopter almost colliding with a drone right off the coast of Hollywood Beach, Florida. In the video, the drone is heading west towards the coast before its camera turns south and the helicopter is seen in the distance; the helicopter…
Study Shows Use of Drones by Public Safety Agencies More than Doubled
By Kathryn Rattigan on
Posted in Drones
Drones are becoming an everyday tool for more and more police and fire departments across the country. According to a study conducted by the Center for the Study of the Drone at New York’s Bard College, the number of public safety agencies with drones has more than doubled since the end of 2016. In fact,…
Unencrypted Backup Drive of 531 EEG Patients Lost
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Baptist Medical Center South, located in Jacksonville, Florida has admitted that one of its backup drives has been missing since May 18, 2017. The unencrypted backup drive contained the protected health information of 531 patients who underwent an EEG at the facility between 2015 and 2017. It has not been recovered to date.
The backup…