Latest HIPAA News

Feds Launch Campaign to Raise Awareness of Cyber Risks Faced by Private Sector Firms

Posted January 8, 2019 by HIPAA Journal

A new public awareness campaign has been launched to raise awareness of cyber risks and to get businesses in all industry sectors to improve their information security practices and cyber defenses.

The “Know the Risk, Raise your Shield” campaign is being run by the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The campaign advises businesses to strengthen passwords, protect social media accounts, implement safeguards to protect against phishing and spear phishing, establish who is calling before any sensitive information is disclosed over the telephone, and not to expect privacy when travelling overseas as electronic equipment can be subject to interference and surveillance.

The aim of the campaign is to provide U.S. companies with information to help them understand the cyber threats they now face and to help them take steps to improve their defense against those threats.

Well-financed nation-state backed threat actors are targeting private sector firms in the United States to gain access to sensitive information, proprietary data and are compromising supply chains. Russia poses the greatest threat, although state-sponsored hackers from China, North Korea, and Iran are also attacking U.S. businesses, as are many independent threat actors.

Attacks are being conducted for financial gain, to disrupt businesses, and with political intent. The attacks threaten U.S. national security and global competitiveness. “The attacks are persistent, aggressive, and cost our nation jobs, economic advantage, and hundreds of billions of dollars,” explained NCSC Director William Evanina.

A series of training videos have been posted on the following topics:

Social media deception
Social engineering
Spear phishing
Travel awareness
Human targeting
Supply chain risk management
Economic espionage

Posters, brochures, and flyers are also available for download from the NCSC to help raise awareness of the threats among employees. The training materials can be accessed on the following link.

Source: NCSC

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Advertising Expenditures Increase 64% Following a Healthcare Data Breach

Posted January 7, 2019 by HIPAA Journal

A recent study has explored the relationship between advertising expenditures and healthcare data breaches. The study shows hospitals significantly increase advertising spending following a data breach.

Healthcare Data Breaches Are the Costliest to Mitigate

Healthcare data breaches are the most expensive to mitigate, far higher than breaches in other industry sectors. According to the Ponemon Institute/IBM Security’s 2018 cost of a data breach study, healthcare data breaches cost, on average, $408 per lost or stolen record. The costs are double, or in some cases almost triple, those in other industry sectors.

In addition to the high costs of mitigating the breaches, the same study confirmed that loss of patients to competitors is a very real threat. Data breaches cause damage to a brand and trust in an organization can be easily lost when confidential personal information is exposed or stolen.

The Ponemon Institute study revealed healthcare organizations have a high churn rate after a breach. At 6.7%, it is higher than the financial sector (6.1%), services (5.2%), energy (3.0%) and education (2.7%).

Hospitals’ Advertising Expenditure Increases 64% Following a Data Breach

In a recent study, Sung J. Choi, PhD and M. Eric Johnson, PhD., investigated how advertising expenditures at hospitals changed following a data breach.

The study, which was recently published in the American Journal of Managed Care, revealed hospitals increase advertising spending by an average of 64% in the year following a data breach. Advertising expenditures were found to be 79% higher over the two-year period following a data breach.

The researchers note that breached hospitals were most likely to be large or teaching hospitals located in urban settings. Hospitals that experienced data breaches had an average of 566 beds and were typically located in areas where there were other hospitals and, consequently, high competition for patients.

Hospitals in the control group that had not experienced a data breach spent an average of £238,000 on advertising each year, whereas hospitals that experienced data breaches spent an average of $817,205 on advertising in the year following a breach – Almost three times as much as the control group. An average of $1.75 million was spend on advertising in the two years following a breach.

The researchers suggest that the increase in spending is an attempt to minimize patient loss to competitors and to help repair hospitals’ reputations.

The researchers note that the data from the study came from 2011-2014 before ransomware attacks on hospitals became common. Given how much more these types of data breaches disrupt medical services provided by hospitals, advertising spending may be even higher following these types of breaches.

“Advertising and the efforts to fix the damages from a data breach increase healthcare costs and may divert resources and attention away from initiatives to improve care quality,” wrote the researchers. “Advertising costs subsequent to a breach are another cost to the healthcare system that could be avoided with better data security.”

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Summary of 2018 HIPAA Fines and Settlements

Posted January 3, 2019 by HIPAA Journal

This post summarizes the 2018 HIPAA fines and settlements that have resulted from the enforcement activities of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and state attorneys general.

Another Year of Heavy OCR HIPAA Enforcement

In 2016, there was a significant increase in HIPAA files and settlements compared to the previous year. In 2016, one civil monetary penalty was issued by OCR and 12 settlements were agreed with HIPAA covered entities and their business associates. In 2015, OCR only issued 6 financial penalties.

The high level of HIPAA enforcement continued in 2017 with 9 settlements agreed and one civil monetary penalty issued.

While there were two settlements agreed in February 2018 to resolve HIPAA violations, there were no further settlements or penalties until June. By the end of the summer it was looking like OCR had eased up on healthcare organizations that failed to comply with HIPAA Rules.

However, in September, a trio of settlements were agreed with hospitals that had allowed a film crew to record footage of patients without first gaining consent. Further settlements were agreed in October, November, and December and OCR finished the year on one civil monetary penalty and 9 settlements to resolve HIPAA violations.

While 2018 was not a record-breaking year in terms of the number of financial penalties for HIPAA violations, it was a record-breaker in terms of the total penalty amounts paid. OCR received $25,683,400 in financial penalties in 2018. The mean financial penalty was $2,568,340.

The median HIPAA fine in 2018 was $442,000: Much lower than 2017 median of $2,250,000. It was also the lowest median fine amount of the last 5 years, although 2018 did see the largest ever HIPAA violation penalty.

In October 2018, Anthem Inc., settled its HIPAA violation case with OCR for $16,000,000. The massive fine was due to the extent of the HIPAA violations discovered by OCR and the scale of its 2015 data breach, which saw the protected health information of around 78,800,000 plan members stolen by hackers.

2018 HIPAA Fines and Settlements

Year	Covered Entity	Amount	Settlement/CMP	Reason
February 2018	Fresenius Medical Care North America	$3,500,000	Settlement	Risk analysis failures, impermissible disclosure of ePHI; Lack of policies covering electronic devices; Lack of encryption; Insufficient security policies; Insufficient physical safeguards
February 2018	Filefax, Inc.	$100,000	Settlement	Impermissible disclosure of PHI
June 2018	University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center	$4,348,000	Civil Monetary Penalty	Impermissible disclosure of ePHI; No Encryption
September 18	Massachusetts General Hospital	$515,000	Settlement	Filming patients without consent
September 18	Brigham and Women’s Hospital	$384,000	Settlement	Filming patients without consent
September 18	Boston Medical Center	$100,000	Settlement	Filming patients without consent
October 2018	Anthem Inc	$16,000,000	Settlement	Risk Analysis failures; Insufficient reviews of system activity; Failure related to response to a detected breach; Insufficient technical controls to prevent unauthorized ePHI access
November 2018	Allergy Associates of Hartford	$125,000	Settlement	PHI disclosure to reporter; No sanctions against employee
December 2018	Advanced Care Hospitalists	$500,000	Settlement	Impermissible PHI Disclosure; No BAA; Insufficient security measures; No HIPAA compliance efforts prior to April 1, 2014
December 2018	Pagosa Springs Medical Center	$111,400	Settlement	Failure to terminate employee access; No BAA

State Attorneys General HIPAA Enforcement Activities

It is difficult to obtain meaningful statistics on HIPAA fines and settlements by state attorneys general. While state attorneys general can issue fines for violations of HIPAA Rules, in many cases, financial penalties instead issued for violations of state laws. That said, 2018 did see a major increase in HIPAA enforcement activity by state attorneys general.

There were 12 HIPAA-related financial penalties issued in 2018 by state attorneys general. The New Jersey attorney general was the most active HIPAA enforcer behind OCR with 4 HIPAA fines, followed by New York with 3, Massachusetts with 2, and 1 financial penalty issued by each of Connecticut, District of Columbia, and Washington.

The largest attorney general HIPAA fine of 2018 – Aetna’s $1,150,000 penalty – was issued by New York. Aetna was also fined a total of $640,171 in a multi-state action by Connecticut, New Jersey, Washington, and the District of Columbia. Washington has yet to agree to a settlement amount with Aetna.

EmblemHealth was fined a total of $675,000 for a 2016 data breach: $575,000 by New York and $100,000 by New Jersey.

State	Covered Entity	Amount	State Residents Affected
Massachusetts	McLean Hospital	$75,000	1,500
New Jersey	EmblemHealth	$100,000	6,443
New Jersey	Best Transcription Medical	$200,000	1,650
Washington	Aetna	TBA*	13,160 (multi-state total)
Connecticut	Aetna	$99,959	13,160 (multi-state total)
New Jersey	Aetna	$365,211.59	13,160 (multi-state total)
District of Columbia	Aetna	$175,000	13,160 (multi-state total)
Massachusetts	UMass Memorial Medical Group / UMass Memorial Medical Center	$230,000	15,000
New York	Arc of Erie County	$200,000	3,751
New Jersey	Virtua Medical Group	$417,816	1,654
New York	EmblemHealth	$575,000	81,122
New York	Aetna	$1,150,000	13,160 (multi-state total)

*Washington yet to determine settlement amount

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IT Service Providers and Customers Warned of Increase in Chinese Malicious Cyber Activity

Posted January 3, 2019 by HIPAA Journal

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) has issued an alert about increased Chinese malicious cyber activity targeting IT service providers such as Managed Service Provider (MSPs), Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs), Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) and their customers.

The attacks take advantage of trust relationships between IT service providers and their customers. A successful cyberattack on a CSP, MSP or MSSP can give the attackers access to healthcare networks and sensitive patient data.

The DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued technical details on the tactics and techniques used by Chinese threat actors to gain access to services providers’ networks and the systems of their customers.

The information has been shared to allow network defenders to take action to block the threats and reduce exposure to the Chinese threat actors’ activities. Guidance has been released for IT service providers and their customers on the steps that should be taken to improve security to prevent successful attacks. While a range of mitigations have been specified, there is no single solution that will work for all organizations and mitigating these malicious activities can be a complex process.

Advice for Customers of IT Service Providers

Healthcare organizations that utilize IT service providers are advised to:

Ensure their providers have conducted a review to determine if there is a security concern or has been a compromise
Ensure their IT service providers have implemented solutions and tools to detect cyberattacks.
Review and verify connections between healthcare systems and those used by IT service providers.
Verify all IT service provider accounts are being used for appropriate purposes.
Disable IT service provider accounts when they are not in use.
Ensure business associate agreements require IT service providers to implement appropriate security controls, require logging and monitoring of client systems and connections to their networks, and the need to promptly issue notifications when suspicious activity is detected.
Integrate system log files and network monitoring data into intrusion detection and security monitoring systems for independent correlation, aggregation and detection.
Ensure service providers view US-CERT pages related to APT groups targeting IT service providers, specifically TA-18-276A and TA-18-276B.

Advice for IT Service Providers

IT service providers have been advised to take the following actions to mitigate the risk of cyberattacks:

Ensure the mitigations detailed in US-CERT alerts are fully implemented.
Ensure the principle of least privilege is applied to their environments, customers’ data are logically separated, and access to clients’ networks is not shared.
Implement advanced network and host-based monitoring systems that look for anomalous behavior that could indicate malicious activity.
Aggregate and correlate log information to maximize the probability of detection of malicious activity and account misuse.
Work closely with customers to ensure that all hosted infrastructure is carefully monitored and maintained.

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HHS Publishes Cybersecurity Best Practices for Healthcare Organizations

Posted January 2, 2019 by HIPAA Journal

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued voluntary cybersecurity best practices for healthcare organizations and guidelines for managing cyber threats and protecting patients.

Healthcare technologies are essential for providing care to patients, yet those technologies introduce risks. If those risks are not properly managed they can result in disruption to healthcare operations, costly data breaches, and harm to patients.

The HHS notes that $6.2 billion was lost by the U.S. Health Care System in 2016 as a result of data breaches and 4 out of 5 physicians in the United States have experienced some form of cyberattack. The average cost of a data breach for a healthcare organization is now $2.2 million.

“Cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility. It is the responsibility of every organization working in healthcare and public health,” said Janet Vogel, HHS Acting Chief Information Security Officer. “In all of our efforts, we must recognize and leverage the value of partnerships among government and industry stakeholders to tackle the shared problems collaboratively.”

The guidance and best practices – Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices (HICP): Managing Threats and Protecting Patients – were developed in response to a mandate in the Cybersecurity Act of 2015 Section 405(d) to issue practical guidelines to help healthcare organizations cost-effectively reduce healthcare cybersecurity risks.

The guidance was developed over two years with assistance provided by more than 150 cybersecurity and healthcare experts from industry and the government under the Healthcare and Public Health (HPH) Sector Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Public-Private Partnership.

“The healthcare industry is truly a varied digital ecosystem. We heard loud and clear through this process that providers need actionable and practical advice, tailored to their needs, to manage modern cyber threats. That is exactly what this resource delivers,” said Erik Decker, industry co-lead and Chief Information Security and Privacy Officer for the University of Chicago Medicine.

Two technical volumes have also been published that outline cybersecurity best practices for healthcare organizations tailored to the size of the organization: One for small healthcare providers such as clinics and a second volume for medium healthcare organizations and large health systems. The documents contain a common set of voluntary, consensus-based, and industry-led guidelines, best practices, methodologies, procedures, and processes.

The aim of the guidance and best practices is threefold: To help healthcare organizations reduce cybersecurity risks to a low level in a cost-effective manner, to support the voluntary adoption and implementation of Cybersecurity Act recommendations, and to provide practical, actionable, and relevant cybersecurity advice for healthcare organizations of all sizes.

The guidance aims to raise awareness of cybersecurity threats to the healthcare sector and help healthcare organizations mitigate the most impactful cybersecurity threats: Email phishing attacks, ransomware attacks, loss/theft of equipment and data, accidental and intentional insider data breaches, and medical device attacks that could affect patient safety.

Ten cybersecurity practices are detailed in the technical volumes to mitigate the above threats in the following areas:

E-mail protection systems
Endpoint protection systems
Access management
Data protection and loss prevention
Asset management
Network management
Vulnerability management
Incident response
Medical device security
Cybersecurity policies

A “cybersecurity practices assessments toolkit” has also been made available to help healthcare organizations prioritize threats and develop action plans to mitigate those threats.

Over the next few months, the HHS will be working closely with industry stakeholders to raise awareness of cybersecurity threats and implement the best practices across the health sector.

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Largest Healthcare Data Breaches of 2018

Posted December 27, 2018 by HIPAA Journal

This post summarizes the largest healthcare data breaches of 2018: Healthcare data breaches that have resulted in the loss, theft, unauthorized accessing, impermissible disclosure, or improper disposal of 100,000 or more healthcare records.

2018 has seen 18 data breaches that have exposed 100,000 or more healthcare records. 8 of those breaches saw more than half a million healthcare records exposed, and three of those breaches exposed more than 1 million healthcare records.

A Bad Year for Healthcare Data Breaches

As of December 27, 2018, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has received notifications of 351 data breaches of 500 or more healthcare records. Those breaches have resulted in the exposure of 13,020,821 healthcare records.

It is likely that the year will finish on a par with 2017 in terms of the number of reported healthcare data breaches; however, more than twice as many healthcare records have been exposed in 2018 than in 2017.

In 2017, there were 359 data breaches of 500 or more records reported to OCR. Those breaches resulted in the exposure of 5,138,179 healthcare records.

The Largest Healthcare Data Breaches of 2018

Listed below is a summary of the largest healthcare data breaches of 2018. A brief description of those breaches has been listed below.

At the time of writing, OCR is still investigating all but one of the breaches listed below. Only the LifeBridge Health breach investigation has been closed.

Rank	Name of Covered Entity	Covered Entity Type	Individuals Affected	Type of Breach
1	AccuDoc Solutions, Inc.	Business Associate	2,652,537	Hacking/IT Incident
2	UnityPoint Health	Business Associate	1,421,107	Hacking/IT Incident
3	Employees Retirement System of Texas	Health Plan	1,248,263	Unauthorized Access/Disclosure
4	CA Department of Developmental Services	Health Plan	582,174	Theft
5	MSK Group	Healthcare Provider	566,236	Hacking/IT Incident
6	CNO Financial Group, Inc.	Health Plan	566,217	Unauthorized Access/Disclosure
7	LifeBridge Health, Inc	Healthcare Provider	538,127	Hacking/IT Incident
8	Health Management Concepts, Inc.	Business Associate	502,416	Hacking/IT Incident
9	AU Medical Center, INC	Healthcare Provider	417,000	Hacking/IT Incident
10	SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital – Jefferson City	Healthcare Provider	301,000	Improper Disposal
11	Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences	Healthcare Provider	279,865	Hacking/IT Incident
12	Med Associates, Inc.	Business Associate	276,057	Hacking/IT Incident
13	Adams County	Healthcare Provider	258,120	Unauthorized Access/Disclosure
14	MedEvolve	Business Associate	205,434	Unauthorized Access/Disclosure
15	HealthEquity, Inc.	Business Associate	165,800	Hacking/IT Incident
16	St. Peter’s Surgery & Endoscopy Center	Healthcare Provider	134,512	Hacking/IT Incident
17	New York Oncology Hematology, P.C.	Healthcare Provider	128,400	Hacking/IT Incident
18	Boys Town National Research Hospital	Healthcare Provider	105,309	Hacking/IT Incident

Causes of the Largest Healthcare Data Breaches of 2018

Further information on the causes of the largest healthcare breaches of 2018.

AccuDoc Solutions, Inc.

Morrisville, NC-based AccuDoc Solutions, a billing company that operates the online payment system used by Atrium Health’s network of 44 hospitals in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, discovered that some of its databases had been compromised between September 22 and September 29, 2018. The databases contained the records of 2,652,537 patients. While data could have been viewed, AccuDoc reports that the databases could not be downloaded. Not only was this the largest healthcare data breach of 2018, it was the largest healthcare data breach to be reported since September 2016.

UnityPoint Health

A UnityPoint Health phishing attack was detected on May 31, 2018. The forensic investigation revealed multiple email accounts had been compromised between March 14 and April 3, 2018 as a result of employees being fooled in a business email compromise attack. A trusted executive’s email account was spoofed, and several employees responded to the messages and disclosed their email credentials. The compromised email accounts contained the PHI of 1,421,107 individuals.

Employees Retirement System of Texas

The Employees Retirement System of Texas discovered a flaw in its ERS OnLine portal that allowed certain individuals to view the protected health information of other members after logging into the portal. The breach was attributed to a coding error. Up to 1,248,263 individuals’ PHI was potentially viewed by other health plan members.

CA Department of Developmental Services

The California Department of Developmental Services experienced a break in at its offices. During the time the thieves were in the offices they potentially accessed the sensitive information of approximately 15,000 employees, contractors, job applicants, and parents of minors who receive DDS services, in addition to the PHI of 582,174 patients.

MSK Group

Tennessee-based MSK Group, P.C, a network of orthopedic medical practices, discovered in May 2018 that hackers had gained access to its network. Certain parts of the network had been accessed by the hackers over a period of several months. The records of 566,236 patients, which included personal, health and insurance information, may have been viewed or copied by the hackers.

CNO Financial Group, Inc.

Chicago-based health insurer Bankers Life, a division of CNO Financial Group Inc., discovered hackers gained access to its systems between May 30 and September 13, 2018 and potentially stole the personal information of 566,217 individuals.

LifeBridge Health, Inc

The Baltimore-based healthcare provider LifeBridge Health discovered malware had been installed on a server that hosted the electronic medical record system used by LifeBridge Potomac Professionals and LifeBridge Health’s patient registration and billing systems. Those systems contained the PHI of 538,127 patients.

Health Management Concepts, Inc.

Health Management Concepts discovered hackers gained access to a server used for sharing files and installed ransomware. The ransom demand was paid to unlock the encrypted files; however, HMC reported that the hackers were ‘inadvertently provided’ with a file that contained the PHI of 502,416 individuals. It is suspected that the file was unwittingly sent to the attackers to prove they could decrypt files.

AU Medical Center, INC

An Augusta University Medical Center phishing attack resulted in an unauthorized individual gaining access to the email accounts of two employees. The compromised email accounts contained the PHI of 417,000 patients.

SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital – Jefferson City

St. Mary’s Hospital moved to new premises and all patients’ medical records were transferred to the new facility; however, on June 1, 2018, the hospital discovered administrative documents containing the protected health information of 301,000 patients had been left behind. In the most part, the breach was limited to names and medical record numbers.

Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences

Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences discovered an unauthorized individual gained access to parts of its computer network and potentially accessed files containing billing information of Medicaid patients. The breach affected 279,865 patients, although only a limited amount of PHI was accessible.

Med Associates, Inc.

The Latham, NY-based health billing company Med Associates, which provides claims services to more than 70 healthcare providers, discovered an employee’s computer has been accessed by an unauthorized individual. It is possible that the attacker gained access to the PHI of up to 276,057 patients.

Adams County

Adams County, WI, discovered hackers gained access to its network and potentially accessed the PHI and PII of 258,102 individuals. The compromised systems were used by the departments of Health and Human Services, Child Support, Veteran Service Office, Extension Office, Adams County Employees, Solid Waste, and the Sheriff’s Office.

MedEvolve

MedEvolve, a provider of electronic billing and record services to healthcare providers, discovered an FTP server had been left unsecured between March 29, 2018 and May 4, 2018. A file on the FTP server contained the PHI of 205,434 patients of Premier Immediate Medical Care.

HealthEquity, Inc.

HealthEquity, a Utah-based company that provides services to help individuals gain tax advantages to offset the cost of healthcare, experienced a phishing attack that resulted in hackers gaining access to the email accounts of two employees. Those accounts contained the PHI of 165,800 individuals.

St. Peter’s Surgery & Endoscopy Center

St. Peter’s Surgery & Endoscopy Center in New York discovered malware had been installed on one of its servers which potentially allowed hackers to view the PHI of 134,512 patients. The malware was discovered the same day it was installed. The fast detection potentially prevented patients’ data from being viewed or copied.

New York Oncology Hematology, P.C.

A phishing attack on New York Oncology Hematology in Albany, NY, resulted in hackers gaining access to the email accounts of 15 employees. Those accounts contained the PHI of 128,400 current and former patients and employees.

Boys Town National Research Hospital

Boys Town National Research Hospital, an Omaha, NE hospital specializing in pediatric deafness, visual and communication disorders, experienced a phishing attack that allowed hackers to gain access to a single email account. The email account contained the PHI of 105,309 patients.

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Data of More Than 500,000 Staff and Students Compromised in San Diego School District Phishing Attack

Posted December 27, 2018 by HIPAA Journal

The San Diego School District has announced it has suffered a major phishing attack that has resulted in the exposure of the personal data, including health information, of more than 500,000 staff and students.

The phishing attack was detected in October 2018; however, an investigation into the breach revealed the hacker had network access for almost a year. Access to the network was first gained in January 2018 and the attacker continued to access the network until November 2018.

The decision was taken not to alert the hacker to the discovery of the breach immediately. Instead, the school district first investigated the breach to determine the nature of the attack and the extent to which its network had been compromised. Access was only terminated when the initial phase of the investigation was completed.

San Diego School District conducted the investigation in conjunction with the San Diego Unified Police and has identified the hacker responsible for the attack. All compromised accounts have now been reset and unauthorized access to staff and student data is no longer possible.

The phishing emails used in the attack were highly realistic and directed users to a website where they were required to enter their login credentials, which were then harvested by the attacker.

The breach was one of the most severe phishing attacks reported to date. The investigation revealed more than 50 email accounts of district employees were compromised in the attack over the space of 11 months.

The types of information compromised included names, telephone numbers, mailing addresses, home addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, state student ID numbers, schedule information, school attendance information, transfer information, emergency contacts, legal notices, and health information. Compromised employee information also included paychecks and pay advice, staff health benefits enrollment information, beneficiary identity information, savings and flexible spending account data, dependents’ identities, tax information, direct deposit bank names, routing numbers, and account numbers, and payroll and compensation data. The data compromised in the attack dates back to the 2008-2009 school year.

While data access was possible, it is unclear whether the hacker copied any staff and student data. All individuals affected by the breach are now being notified. The wider investigation into the attack is continuing. Additional security measures have now been installed to prevent further breaches of this nature.

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Massachusetts Attorney General Issues $75,000 HIPAA Violation Fine to McLean Hospital

Posted December 21, 2018 by HIPAA Journal

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has issued a $75,000 HIPAA violation fine to McLean Hospital over a 2015 data breach that exposed the protected health information (PHI) of approximately 1,500 patients.

McLean Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Belmont, MA, allowed an employee to regularly take 8 backup tapes home. When the employee was terminated in May 2015, McLean Hospital was only able to recover four of the backup tapes. The backup tapes were unencrypted and contained the PHI of approximately 1,500 patients, employees, and deceased donors of the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center.

The lost backup tapes included clinical and demographic information such as names, Social Security numbers, medical diagnoses, and family histories. In addition to the exposure of PHI, the state AG’s investigation revealed there had been employee training failures and McLean Hospital had not identified, assessed, and planned for security risks. The loss of the tapes was also not reported in a timely manner and the hospital had failed to encrypt PHI stored on portable devices or use an alternative, equivalent measure to safeguard PHI.

“Hospitals must take measures to protect the private information of their patients,” said AG Maura Healey. “This settlement requires McLean Hospital to implement a new information security program and train its staff on how to properly handle the private information of those they serve.”

Backups of sensitive data should be made regularly to ensure that, in the event of disaster, patients’ PHI can be recovered. If physical copies of PHI are backed up and taken offsite by employees, appropriate security controls should be put in place to prevent those individuals from accessing the data and to ensure that in the event of loss or theft of devices, PHI will not be exposed. While HIPAA falls short of demanding the use of encryption for PHI, if the decision is taken not to encrypt PHI, an alternative safeguard must be implemented that offers an equivalent level of protection.

In addition to the financial penalty, McLean Hospital has agreed to enhance its privacy and security practices. A written information security program will be implemented and maintained, training will be provided to new and existing employees on privacy and security of personal health information, an inventory will be created and maintained of all portable devices containing ePHI, and all electronic PHI will be encrypted within 60 days.

McLean has also agreed to a third-party audit of the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center to assess how it handles portable devices containing personal and health information.

“McLean has continued to enhance its privacy and security practices and procedures within the Brain Bank and throughout the research operation. The agreement with the Attorney General represents a continuation of those efforts,” explained McLean Hospital in statement issued to the media.

This is the second HIPAA violation penalty to be issued by Massachusetts in 2018. UMass Memorial Medical Group / UMass Memorial Medical Center settled a HIPAA violation case with Massachusetts for $230,000 in September. The fine related to the failure to secure the ePHI of 15,000 state residents.

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November 2018 Healthcare Data Breach Report

Posted December 20, 2018 by HIPAA Journal

For the second consecutive month there has been an increase in both the number of reported healthcare data breaches and the number of records exposed, stolen, or impermissibly disclosed.

November was the worst month of the year to date for healthcare data breaches in terms of the number of exposed healthcare records. 3,230,063 records were exposed, stolen, or impermissibly disclosed in the breaches reported in November.

To put that figure into perspective, that’s more records than were exposed in all 180 data breaches reported to the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the first half of 2018.

There were 34 healthcare data breaches reported to OCR in November, making it the second worst month of the year to date for breaches, behind June when 41 breaches were reported.

Largest Healthcare Data Breaches in November 2018

The largest healthcare data breach of 2018 was reported in November by Accudoc Solutions, a business associate of Atrium Health that provides healthcare billing services. That single breach resulted in the exposure of more than 2.65 million healthcare records.

AccuDoc Solutions discovered hackers had gained access to some of its databases for a week in September 2018. According to AccuDoc, the information in the databases could only be viewed, not downloaded.

Rank	Name of Covered Entity	Covered Entity Type	Individuals Affected	Type of Breach
1	AccuDoc Solutions, Inc.	Business Associate	2652537	Hacking/IT Incident
2	HealthEquity, Inc.	Business Associate	165800	Hacking/IT Incident
3	New York Oncology Hematology, P.C.	Healthcare Provider	128400	Hacking/IT Incident
4	Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Frisco	Healthcare Provider	47984	Hacking/IT Incident
5	Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) at Western Regional Medical Center	Healthcare Provider	41948	Hacking/IT Incident
6	Oprex Surgery (Baytown), L.P. d/b/a Altus Baytown Hospital	Healthcare Provider	40000	Hacking/IT Incident
7	Center for Vitreo-Retinal Diseases	Healthcare Provider	20371	Unauthorized Access/Disclosure
8	Veterans Health Administration	Healthcare Provider	19254	Unauthorized Access/Disclosure
9	Steward Medical Group	Healthcare Provider	16276	Hacking/IT Incident
10	Mind and Motion, LLC	Healthcare Provider	16000	Hacking/IT Incident

Main Causes of November 2018 Healthcare Data Breaches

As was the case in October, hacking/IT incidents accounted for the highest number of data breaches and the most exposed/stolen healthcare records. There were 18 hacking/IT incidents reported in November. Those breaches impacted 3,138,657 individuals.

There were 11 breaches classified as unauthorized access/disclosure incidents which impacted 65,143 individuals, and 4 loss/theft incidents that resulted in the exposure of 22,333 healthcare records. One improper disposal incident exposed 3,930 healthcare records.

Location of Breached Protected Health Information

Email breaches continue to be a major problem in healthcare. These breaches include phishing attacks, unauthorized accessing of email accounts, and misdirected emails. There were 11 email-related breaches of PHI in November. Up until December 19, 2018, 111 email-related healthcare data breaches have been reported to OCR. Those breaches involved more than 3.4 million healthcare records.

Technical solutions can be implemented to reduce the number of email related breaches. Spam filters will prevent the majority of phishing emails from reaching inboxes, but no technical solution will be 100% effective so employees need to be trained how to recognize phishing attacks and other email threats.

All individuals in an organization from the CEO down should receive regular security awareness training with a particular emphasis on phishing. In addition to regular training sessions, phishing simulation exercises should be conducted. Through phishing simulations, healthcare organizations can assess their security awareness training programs and find out which employees require further training.

Data Breaches by Covered-Entity Type

Healthcare providers were the covered entities worst affected by healthcare data breaches in November 2018 with 29 reported incidents.

Business associates of HIPAA-covered entities reported 5 breaches and there were a further five breaches reported by healthcare providers that had some business associate involvement – Twice the number of breaches involving business associates (to some degree) as October.

There were no health plan data breaches reported in November.

Healthcare Data Breaches by State

Texas was the state worst affected by healthcare data breaches in November with 8 reported breaches. New York experienced three healthcare data breaches and there were two breaches reported in each of Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Utah, and Virginia.

One healthcare data breach was reported in Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

Penalties for HIPAA Violations in November 2018

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights settled one HIPAA violation case with a healthcare provider in November.

Allergy Associates of Hartford was fined $125,000 over a physician’s impermissible disclosure of PHI to a TV reporter. The disclosure occurred after the physicians was instructed by the Allergy Associates of Hartford Privacy Officer not to respond to the reporter’s request for information about a patient, or to reply with ‘no comment’. Allergy Associates of Hartford failed to take any action against the physician over the HIPAA violation.

New Jersey also issued a financial penalty to a HIPAA-covered entity in November to resolve a HIPAA violation case. Best Transcription Medical was fined $200,000 for exposing the electronic protected health information of patients over the Internet. The breach affected 1,650 New Jersey residents.

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