Emma Taylor
Twin Phishing Attacks on Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Results in Data Breach
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) has announced that the email accounts of two employees have been compromised following cyberattacks on two August 23 and August 29, 2018. On August 24, CHOP, a paediatric healthcare facility and primary care provider, discovered … Read more
Report Reveals Spike in Data Breaches Reported Under GDPR
The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) came into effect in the European Union in May 2018. The regulations served to replace the existing regulations covering data protection, which were woefully out-of-date with modern technology and inadequate to deal with major … Read more
New York Hospital Fires Employees Following Security Breach
A hospital in New York has fired several employees following a security breach. Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center, a not-for-profit 115-bed community hospital in Ogdensburg, NY, announced that several employees accessed patient protected health information (PHI) without proper authorisation to do so. … Read more
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 … Read more
Reliable Respiratory Falls Victim to Phishing Attack
Reliable Respiratory, a respiratory care provider, has announced that it has fallen victim to a phishing attack. Reliable Respiratory, based in Norwood, MA, stated that IT staff discovered the breach when they detected suspicious activity on an employee’s email account … Read more
Kroll Survey Shows Increase in Number of Data Breaches Reported Post-GDPR
Kroll, a data security company, has released the results of a survey which shows that the number of data breaches reported to the UK’s Information Commissioner has increased by 75% since the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). … Read more
Proof-of-Concept Exploit for Windows Task Scheduler Published
A security researcher released proof-of-concept code that would allow for a user to exploit a flaw in the Windows Task Scheduler. The flaw was discovered by Github user SandboxEscaper, who was also responsible for publishing the proof-of-concept (PoC) code. The … Read more
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 … Read more
Patient Data Stolen in Legacy Health Phishing Attack
Legacy Health has announced that the PHI of 38,000 patients was stolen during a phishing attack on their facility. Legacy Health is a non-profit hospital system based in Portland, Oregon. The organisation consists of six hospitals and employs upwards of … Read more
Whose data does GDPR protect?
General Data Protection Regulations became a part of EU law in May 2018. Before GDPR, European data protection laws were deemed unable to mitigate the risk of data theft. Furthermore, individuals had few rights over their data. EU lawmakers sought … Read more
Press America Inc Faces Lawsuit Over HIPAA Breach
Press America, Inc, a mail service used by a pharmacy benefit manager CVS Pharmacy, is being sued for the occurrence of an accidental disclosure of 41 people’ protected health information. As a subcontractor to supply a mail-order pharmacy service for the … Read more
Medical Data from Closed Pennsylvania Obs/Gyn Clinic Found at Allentown Public Recycling Center
Private Medical Data has been found at a recycling center in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Paper files containing names, Social Security numbers, and medical histories, including details of cancer diagnoses and sexually transmitted diseases were located that the center by a city worker. … Read more
12,172 Individuals Impacted by ShopRite Data Breach
Pharmacy customers of ShopRite Supermarkets, Inc. have been impacted by a security violation caused by the improper disposal of a device used to record the signatures of customers. The device was used at the ShopRite, Kingston, NY location during the … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
PHI of 932 Texas Children’s Health Plan Members’ in Email Breach
An email to the personal email account of a former employee of the Texas Children’s Health Plan has been discovered to have exposed the protected health information (PHI) of 932 members. The incident was identified on September 21, 2017, although … Read more
Iliana Peters Now Acting Deputy at the OCR
OCR’s Iliana Peters has stepped in to replace Deven McGraw, Deputy Director for Health Information Privacy at the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR), in an interim role. Peters will serve as Acting Deputy Director … Read more
Survey finds US and UK Companies Slow to Prepare for GDPR Compliance
A recent survey, conducted by Dimensional Research, has revealed that the levels of unpreparedness for both US and UK firms for compliance with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are high. Results seen in both the UK and US … Read more
Danger of Using USB Drives to Store PHI Highlighted of Data Breach
Two USB drives holding the protected health information of almost 2,000 veterans at the Man-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, WA have been discovered to be stolen. The two devices were storing data from a separate, external, non-networked server that … Read more
HIPAA Alliance Marketplace Matches Healthcare Organizations With HIPAA-Compliant Business
This week has seen the launch of a new platform that streamlines the process of searching for HIPAA-compliant business associates. The HIPAA Alliance Marketplace has been developed to match HIPAA covered entities with trusted vendors that have been independently verified … Read more
Bad Rabbit Ransomware Attacks Detected in last 24 hours
There has been a litany of reports of cyberattacks using Bad Rabbit ransomware in the last 24 hours. Bad Rabbit is a newly identified ransomware variant with similarities to both NotPetya and HDDCryptor. NotPetya was employed in widespread cyberattacks last … Read more
HIPAA Compliant Business Associates Easier to Locate with New Tool
The challenge of finding HIPAA compliant business associates has been addressed with the introduction of a new tool to simplify this task. Healthcare organizations are only allowed to use business associates that comply with HIPAA Rules and sign a business associate … Read more
FinSpy Malware Installed Using Adobe Flash Player Uopdate Flaw
Last week software giant Adobe issued a new patch for Flash Player to address an actively exploited weakness (CVE-2017-11292) that is being targeted by the hacking group Black Oasis to install FinSpy malware. Finspy is strictly not defined as malware, … Read more
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 … Read more
1300 People Impacted by RiverMend Health Breach
An unauthorized person has been found to have obtained access to the email credentials of one the employees at RiverMend Health, a provider of specialty behavioral health services including services for drug and alcohol addiction. The unauthorized access was discovered … Read more
Attackers Decrypting WiFi Traffic Thanks to KRACK WiFi Security Weakness
A WiFi security flaw in WPA2 called KRACK has been discovered in an investigation at the University of Leuven in Belgium. The KRACK WiFi security weakness affects all modern WiFi networks and could be used for ill means with relative ease. … Read more
Improperly Configured Cloud Services in Over Half of Businesses
The healthcare sector has made great waves recently in embracing cloud based technology. Most healthcare groups now implementing secure cloud storage services to host web applications or store data which contains electronic protected health information (ePHI) pertaining to subscribers. However, … Read more
Almost 500K Records Exposed in September Healthcare Data Breaches
The Breach Barometer report from for September has been released and shows there was a significant increase in healthcare data breaches during that month. The report collates healthcare data violations reported to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office … Read more
Advisory Issues by Department of Education Regarding Hacking and Extortion Threats
TheDarkOverlord hacking group has, in recent time, been targeting K12 schools; obtaining access to networks, stealing data and trying to extort money. As a reaction to the hacking and extortion threats, the U.S. Department of Education has released an advisory to … Read more
HIPAA Compliance and Skype: What You Need to Know
Skype and other text messaging platforms are a useful way of broadcasting information, but there are some questions to be answered in relation to HIPAA compliance of the service. There has recently been a lot of discussions and debate regarding … Read more
U.S. Organizations Targeted by FormBook Malware Campaign
Specific industry sectors in the United States and South Korea have been the main targets in the Formbook malware attacks. However there has been some worry that the malware will be used in more widespread cyberattacks around the world. So … Read more
PHI Exposure May Have Happened Following Theft of Unencrypted Laptop
Exposure of patients’ protected health information may have occurred after an unencrypted laptop computer was stolen from a car belonging to an employee of Bassett Family Practice in Virginia. The theft of the laptop is thought to have occurred during … Read more
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 … Read more
Zero Day Vulnerabilities Exploited by Microsoft Patches
This Patch Tuesday has seen Microsoft release several updates for serious vulnerabilities, some of which are being constantly exploited in the open. Microsoft is pleading with companies to apply the patches now to keep their systems safe. Some of the … Read more
Public Whois Registry Likely to be Affected by GDPR
The EU GDPR Law will have a significant impact on the businesses that process and manage EU citizens’ data. WHOIS is a member of Domain Name sector that is likely to be affected by the new data protection legislation. The … Read more
Proposed Rule for Certification of Compliance for Health Plans Withdrawn by HHS
The Department of Health and Human Services, at the start of 2014, completed a proposal for introducing a new rule to bring in an official certification of compliance for health plans. The proposed rule would have obligated all controlling health … Read more
GDPR to be incorporated in new UK Data Protection Bill
The British Government has completeded the Data Protection Bill that aims to align the country’s data protection regime with the soon to be introduced European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This will allow UK citizens to have more control over their private … Read more
DDoS Attacks Follow Increase in Flusihoc Botnet Activity Increases
DDoS attacks are being implemented using the Flusihoc Botnet, some as recording speeds as quick as 45 Gbps according to investigators at Arbor networks. The Flusihoc botnet has been in action for a minimum two years, although activity has grown … Read more
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 … Read more
Redlock Report: Cloud Storage Services are Misconfigured in over Half of Businesses
According to a recent study by cloud threat defense firm RedLock, more than half of businesses have made mistakes that have exposed sensitive data in the cloud. The report reveals that as muc as 53% of organizations are not following established security … Read more
PHI of 10,500 Patients Found Exposed in Basement Owned by Psychiatrist
The medical details of over 10,000 patients of an Illinois-based psychiatrist – Dr. Riaz Baber, M.D. – have been found in the accessible basement of an Aurora property by the woman who was renting the accommodation from the psychiatrist. It … Read more
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 … Read more
Yahoo Data Breach Saw 3 Billion Accounts Breached in 2013
After it was first discovered the 2013 Yahoo data violation was quickly found to have affected many of the company’s customers and in December 2016 it was announced that 1 billion accounts had been compromised. In September 2016, prior to … Read more
51,000 Plan Members Affect by Network Health Phishing Attack
Network Health, a Wisconsin-based insurer, has contact 51,232 of its plan members to advise them that some of their protected health information (PHI) hmay have been obtained by unauthorized persons. Last August, a number of Network Health staff members received sophisticated … Read more
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, … Read more
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 … Read more
Should Identity Theft Protection Services Be Offered to Data Breach Victims Under HIPAA?
The HIPAA Breach Notification Rule stated that covered bodies must advise people once their ePHI has been compromised. It is less clear if it is a requirement that credit monitoring and identity theft protection services should be be offered to those affected. … Read more
GDPR Leads Lloyds to Alter Marketing Campaigns
Lloyds Banking Group has taken steps to introduce new marketing campaigns due to the coming introduction of the European Union’s GDPR legislation, a new set of guidelines on data privacy and security. Lloyds is moving from product-focused campaigns to the content-focused … Read more
OCR Issue Clarification on HIPAA Disclosure Rules
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights OCR, has, following the recent attacks in Las Vegas, moved to issue a clarification on HIPAA Rules regarding disclosures to family, friends and other people. In the aftermath of … Read more
Patch Issued for Actively Exploited Drupal Vulnerability
A patch for a vulnerability in Drupal (CVE-2017-6922) that has been activiley exploited for some months was released in June 2017. The flaw affects Drupal v 7.56 and 8.3.4. Drupal was aware of the flaw, an access bypass vulnerability, since … Read more