A jury's decision to award $940 million in damages to electronic health records software vendor Epic Systems, which had sued India's Tata Consultancy Services alleging theft of trade secrets, serves up lessons about the importance of restricting access to all sensitive data, including intellectual property.
Now that the Department of Health and Human Services has announced that it will soon begin the next round of HIPAA compliance audits, organizations need to take specific steps to prepare in case they're chosen for scrutiny, says attorney Robert Belfort, a regulatory specialist.
Smaller hospitals and clinics must avoid the common mistake of thinking they won't fall victim to cyberattacks, warns risk management expert Tom Andre, vice president of information services at the Cooperative of American Physicians.
Federal regulators have imposed a $1.55 million penalty on a Minnesota healthcare system as part of a settlement following an investigation of a breach involving a business associate. The vendor has already been sanctioned by two other government entities for the same stolen laptop incident.
While hacker attacks increasingly pose threats to electronic patient data, yet another healthcare provider has reported a major breach involving the improper disposal of paper and film records. The number of individuals being notified makes this the biggest reported health data breach of its kind.
Because cybercriminals are targeting the healthcare sector, organizations must regularly assess the security risks in all their applications, not just those containing protected health information, says risk management expert Angel Hoffman.
Despite their limited resources, smaller healthcare provider organizations must overcome "paralysis" and ramp up efforts to safeguard information systems or risk becoming potential gateways for breaches at larger organizations, says Michael Kaiser of the National Cyber Security Alliance.
A federal official's comments this week that the government is "ending" the HITECH Act's "meaningful use" incentive program for electronic health records is raising numerous questions, including what's next for health data privacy and security regulations.
The primary mission of the new Global Cyber Alliance is to identify measurable ways to mitigate cyberthreats facing the public and private sectors, says Phil Reitlinger, a former DHS official and Sony CISO, who heads the new group.
Reports on the Ukrainian energy supplier hack have left many crucial questions unanswered: Who was involved, did malware directly trigger a blackout and are other suppliers at risk from similar attacks? Cybersecurity experts offer potential answers.
Privacy and security expert Rebecca Herold outlines three common HIPAA compliance missteps and offers advice on bolstering security and minimizing the risk of breaches.
To guard against health data breaches, healthcare organizations must demand more proof that their business associates are safeguarding patient data and mitigating related risks, says privacy and security expert Daniel Schroeder.
In its sixth HIPAA resolution agreement so far in 2015, the HHS Office for Civil Rights has announced a settlement with the University of Washington Medicine that includes a $750,000 penalty. It's the first HIPAA enforcement case stemming from the investigation of a phishing-related breach.
TalkTalk's confusion in the wake of its recent data breach, as well as mangling of technical details and failure to encrypt customer data, demonstrate the importance of having an incident-response plan ready in advance of any breach, experts say.
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