Cybersecurity
- The federal government, via Department of Health & Human Services’ Office For Civil Rights, is reminding all healthcare facilities that they have until 3/1/2021 to report any breaches that exposed PHI of fewer than 500 patients.
- Crowdstrike published report warning the healthcare industry of increased cyberattacks from state sponsored hacking gangs located in:
- North Korea
- Vietnam
- Iran
- Russia
- China
- ZDNet is warning of a sharp rise in hacking attacks aimed at colleges and universities.
- Up 100% YoY
- Average ransom paid = $447,000
- St. Margaret’s Health of Spring Valley, Illinois notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after cyber attack.
- Watermark Retirement Communities, headquartered in Tucson, Arizona, notified patients in 10 states that their PHI may have been exposed after a “cyber intrusion”
- Kroger Corp., which operates grocery stores across the U.S., and in Cincinnati, OH, an unknown number of customers that their info may have been exposed after a cybersecurity incident.
- Automatic Funds Transfer Service, headquartered in Seattle, WA, notified an unknown number of customers that their info may have been exposed after being hit by “Cuba” ransomware gang. Customer impacted include:
- State of California Department of Motor Vehicles
- City of Seattle, WA
- City of Auburn, WA
- City of Kirkland, WA
- City of Lynnwood, WA
- City of Monroe, WA
- City of Puyallup, WA
- City of Redmond, WA
- Lakewood Water District of Seattle
- Port of Edmonds, WA
- Harvard Eye Associates, headquartered in Laguna Hills, CA notified 29,982 patients that their PHI may have been exposed after being hit by ransomware. Also impacted is Alicia Surgery Center.
- Kaspersky Security published results of research on data security:
- $6 trillion = estimated annual loss in U.S. in 2021 from cyber crime
- $12.9 billion = estimated size of threat intelligence market by 2023
- $5.2 trillion = total value at risk from cybercrime over next 5 years
- Bombardier, a manufacturer of airplanes, with U.S. headquarters located in Dallas, TX, notified an unknown number of customers that their info may have been exposed after attack from the Clop ransomware gang.
- Georgetown County of South Carolina notified an unknown number of citizens that their info may have been exposed after ransomware attack.
- Fisher-Titus Medical Center of Ohio notified an unknown number of patients had their PHI exposed after email phishing attack.
- Family Medical Center of Griffin, Georgia, part of Gore Medical Management, recently began notifying 79,100 patients that their PHI may have been exposed through a hacking incident
- FBI notified it of the data theft in November 2020 after finding the stolen files on a third-party computer that was not part of Family Medical Center's practice
- Florida Studio Theatre of Sarasota, FL notified an unknown number of employees and customers that their info was exposed after ransomware attack
- Researchers at University of Kentucky and Michigan State University have found that more than 100 American colleges have been hacked by Chinese hackers including:
- Florida State University Law School
- Clemson University
- Penn State
- MIT
- Columbia
- Purdue University
- UCLA
- Jacobson Memorial Hospital and Care Center of Elgin, North Dakota informed 1,547 patients that their PHI was exposed after email phishing attack
- Cornerstone Care of Pennsylvania notified 11,487 patients that their PHI was exposed after email phishing attack
- TikTok, a video sharing app controlled by the Chinese government, agreed to pay $92 million to settle lawsuit regarding breach of info of 89 million users.
- Morgan County of Missouri notified an unknown number of citizens that their info may have been exposed after DoppelPaymer ransomware attack.
- An unidentified bank in Magnolia, Arkansas is notifying customers that their info was exposed after a former employee illegally accessed and used info to make fraudulent purchases.
- Clubhouse, a popular audio chatroom app, notified an unknown number of users that their info may have been exposed after a recent breach.
- IBM report states that ransomware attacks increased 20% YoY
- Double extortion tactics used in 59% of case
- Dion Melton and Dominic Smith of Norfolk, VA men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft as part of a scheme to purchase alcohol for resale from Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority (ABC) stores with stolen credit, debit, and pre-paid gift card numbers.
- T-Mobile, headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, has disclosed a data breach after an unknown number of customers were apparently affected by SIM swap attacks.
- Universal Health Services, headquartered in King of Prussia, PA, admitted that the company lost $67 million in the second half of 2020 as a result of a September cyberattack.