In March of 2022, President Biden signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2022. The Consolidated Appropriations Act 2022 wears many hats. The law reauthorizes the Anti-Violence Against Women Act, increases defense spending, provides aid to Ukraine, and funds the White House internship program, allowing interns to be paid for the first time. One of the less big-ticket - but by no [...]
Each quarter the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights issues a cybersecurity newsletter. The newsletter highlights cybersecurity trends affecting the healthcare industry. As the March 2022 OCR Cybersecurity Newsletter notes, the number of hacking and IT incidents affecting electronic protected health information (ePHI) has shot up, and rather quickly at that. In fact, there has been a 45% increase in the number [...]
As technology makes our lives easier, it brings the challenge of remembering all the various usernames and passwords required to access our data. Many of us take advantage of password management applications in our personal lives, but is there a way to bring that convenience into our work life? Does a HIPAA compliant password manager even exist? We will look at what [...]
The Department of Health and Human Services has launched a new website designed to align HHS cybersecurity guidance across the healthcare spectrum and facilitate the exchange of best practices and information. Collaboration is Key to HHS Cybersecurity Guidance Launched in December 2021, the website reflects the collaborative effort between the agency and the private sector that has emerged since the agency established [...]
Most security experts agree that it is no longer a question of if cybercriminals will target your practice, but when. Hacking, phishing attacks, and ransomware can effectively cripple your business and cost you resources and reputation. But the best tool to prevent small practice cybercrime can be as basic as having a truly effective HIPAA compliance strategy. Reasons to Prevent Small Practice [...]
Nearly Half of Healthcare Orgs Have No HIPAA Incident Response Plan for Cyberattacks Despite the growing threat of cyberattacks such as phishing, hacking, and ransomware, 42 percent of surveyed healthcare organizations haven’t implemented a HIPAA incident response plan to address these vulnerabilities. Failure to implement an incident response plan is a clear violation based upon HIPAA’s security rule. [...]
There are many cybersecurity challenges that face healthcare organizations, particularly as they’ve become more of a target for hackers. This is for several reasons such as the value of protected health information, technological risks, and lack of awareness. To provide guidance, top healthcare cybersecurity challenges are discussed. Healthcare Cybersecurity Challenges Hackers target healthcare data for its value The introduction of new technology [...]
October was Cybersecurity Awareness Month, but that didn’t stop healthcare breaches from surging with 2,817,162 patients affected by breaches last month. The vast majority of 2021 October healthcare breaches were hacking incidents targeting healthcare providers. There were a total of 49 healthcare breaches listed on the OCR breach portal in October: Type of entity breached 37 healthcare providers reported incidents (2,261,319 patients, 80.27% of total patients affected) 6 [...]
Cyber threats in healthcare are constantly evolving and becoming more complex. A recent report released by Mandiant Intelligence uncovered the very real threat FIN12 ransomware poses to the healthcare sector. According to the report, 20% of FIN12 ransomware attacks target the healthcare sector. Healthcare organizations in North America in particular have cause for concern, with 85% of FIN12 ransomware attacks targeting victims in North America. [...]
Several major health systems have reported an onslaught of phishing, spoofing, and ransomware incidents. While these healthcare cyber attacks use different tactics, they all have the same end goal - to steal sensitive patient information. Phishing Attack Targets UMass Memorial Health UMass Memorial Health recently informed patients that their protected health information (PHI) was potentially compromised in a healthcare cyber attack stemming [...]
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