Discovery Practice Management Settle Lawsuit Over 2020 Data Breach

Posted by Steve Alder

Discovery Practice Management, a California-based healthcare provider, has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit stemming from a June 2020 breach of its email environment. An unauthorized third party accessed employee email accounts between June 22, 2020, and June 26, 2020, and obtained sensitive information relating to patients of the Authentic Recovery Center and Cliffside Malibu facilities in California. The data breach was reported to the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights as affecting up to 12,859 individuals.

Data potentially compromised in the incident included names, addresses, dates of birth, medical record numbers, patient account numbers, health insurance information, financial account/payment card information, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, and clinical information, such as diagnosis, treatment information, and prescription information. It took almost a year for the emails to be reviewed and notification letters to be issued to the affected individuals.

In February 2021, a class action lawsuit – JeanPaul Magallanes, et al v. Discovery Practice Management, Inc. – was filed in response to the data breach by JeanPaul Magallanes that alleged that Discovery Practice Management failed to implement appropriate measures to safeguard sensitive data stored on its network, then failed to issue adequate and timely notification letters when its email environment was compromised.

The alleged cybersecurity failures included insufficient monitoring of inbound emails, insufficient training of its workforce on email-based threats, and the failure to encrypt a data server that became accessible to unauthorized individuals who compromised two employee email accounts. Despite the significant risk to the affected patients, it took 335 days from the date of discovery to issue notification letters, which the lawsuit claims violated HIPAA and the California Consumer Records Act.

The lawsuit claims the actions of the defendant violated the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, California Unfair Competition Law, and the California Consumer Records Act. All parties agreed to engage in settlement discussions to avoid the cost and risk of a trial, and a settlement has been agreed upon with no admission of wrongdoing by Discovery Practice Management. The settlement has recently been granted preliminary approval by Judge Glenda Sanders of the Superior Court of the State of California, for the County of Orange.

Under the terms of the settlement, all class members are entitled to claim a three-year membership to CyEx’s Identity Defense Total Service, and must enroll by December 9, 2025. In addition, claims may be submitted for reimbursement of documented, unreimbursed ordinary and extraordinary losses caused by the data breach. Claims for reimbursement of ordinary losses are capped at $250 per class member, and claims for reimbursement of extraordinary losses are capped at $1,000 per class member.

The deadline for objection to the settlement, exclusion from the settlement, and submitting a claim is November 24, 2025. The final fairness hearing has been scheduled for February 5, 2026.

The post Discovery Practice Management Settle Lawsuit Over 2020 Data Breach appeared first on The HIPAA Journal.

Cyberattack Volume Increases Fueled by 48% YOY Increase in Ransomware Attacks

Posted by Steve Alder

Cyber threat actors had a busy October, with attack volume up 2% month-over-month and 5% year-over-year. In October, organizations experienced an average of 1,938 cyberattacks per week, according to the latest data from cybersecurity firm Check Point.

While attacks are up across all sectors, there was a 15% year-over-year fall in attacks on the health and medical sector, with 2,094 reported attacks in October. The biggest increases were seen in the agriculture (+71%) and information technology sectors (+48%). Education was the most targeted sector with 4,470 attacks, up 5% from October 2024. Latin America experienced the highest number of attacks, with attacks up 16% from October 2024, but the biggest increase was seen in North America, with an average of 1,464 attacks per week, up 18% from October 2024.

Check Point reports that the rise in attacks was fueled by the growing sophistication of ransomware, with attacks dramatically increasing in October. Check Point tracked 801 reported attacks in October, which is a 48% increase compared to September. While Latin America experiences more attacks than any other region, North America was the main target of ransomware groups, accounting for 62% of incidents, ahead of Europe with 19% of attack volume. In October, 57% of reported victims were in the United States, and there was a 56.8% increase in attacks compared to September.

Qilin was the most active ransomware group, accounting for 22.7% of attacks in October. The group has evolved into a sophisticated ransomware-as-a-service organization, attracting new affiliates due to its extensive affiliate support. Akira took second spot with 8.7% of attacks, and the recently emerged Sinobi ransomware group took third spot with 7.8% of attacks.

While all three groups attack healthcare organizations, the healthcare sector appears to be a key focus of the Sinobi group. Sinobi is a ransomware-as-a-service group with a professional structure, highly skilled internal operators, and a team of carefully vetted affiliates. Sinobi primarily targets mid- to large-sized organizations, primarily in the United States and allied countries.

Sinobi claims on its dark web data leak site to have attacked East Jefferson General Hospital, Greater Mental Health of New York, Johnson Regional Medical Center, Judson Center, Middlesex Endodontics, Newmark Healthcare Services, Phoenix Village Dental, Queens Counseling for Change, South Atlanta Medical Clinic, and Watsonville Community Hospital since the group emerged in mid-2025.

Check Point also cautioned about the expanding risks associated with generative AI (GenAI) as enterprise use of GenAI tools continues to grow. One of the biggest threats is the exposure of sensitive data. Check Point reports that in October, 1 out of every 44 GenAI prompts submitted through business networks posed a high risk of sensitive data leakage, something that is especially concerning in healthcare due to the risk of exposure of protected health information.

Check Point reports that 87% of organizations that use GenAI tools regularly experience this type of sensitive data exposure, and many organizations are unaware of the risk. While workers use authorized and managed GenAI tools, on average, 11 different GenAI tools are used by organizations each month, most of which are likely to be unsupervised.

“As ransomware groups evolve and GenAI risks proliferate, organizations must strengthen their threat prevention, data security, and AI governance strategies to stay ahead of adversaries,” suggests Check Point.

The post Cyberattack Volume Increases Fueled by 48% YOY Increase in Ransomware Attacks appeared first on The HIPAA Journal.

HSCC Publishes Preview of Health Sector AI Cybersecurity Risk Guidance

Posted by Steve Alder

In Q1, 2026, the Health Sector Coordinating Council (HSCC) plans to publish AI cybersecurity guidelines for the healthcare sector. Last week, the HSCC Cybersecurity Working Group (CWG) published previews of the cybersecurity guidance ahead of the full release next year.

Artificial intelligence has tremendous potential in healthcare; however, it introduces cybersecurity risks that must be managed and reduced to a reasonable level. To better prepare the health sector, the HSCC CWG established an AI Cybersecurity Task Force in October 2024, consisting of individuals from 115 healthcare organizations across the spectrum. The Cybersecurity Task Group has considered the complexity and the associated risks of AI technology in clinical, administrative, and financial health sector applications, and divided the identified AI issues into five manageable workstreams of discrete functional risk areas:

  • Education and enablement
  • Cyber operations & defense
  • Governance
  • Secure by design
  • Third-party AI risk and supply chain transparency

Significant progress has been made across all workstreams, and in January, guidance will be published covering each of these areas. The guidelines will include best practices for healthcare organizations to adopt, and while not legally binding, they will help the sector effectively manage and reduce AI cybersecurity risks.

Ahead of the release, HSCC CWG published one-page summaries for each of these workstreams detailing the objectives, key focus areas, and deliverables in each area. HSCC CWG has also published a foundational document that describes the most important AI terms that healthcare organizations need to be aware of.

The education and enablement workstream covers the common terms and language used throughout the guidance to familiarize users with the use of AI in their functional environments and help them better understand risk and apply control activities.

The cyber operations and defense workstream provides practical playbooks for preparing for, detecting, responding to, and recovering from AI cyber incidents. That includes identifying requirements for conducting optimized AI-specific cybersecurity operations, defining AI-driven threat intelligence processes with appropriate safeguards to support clinical workflows, establishing operational guardrails for AI technologies beyond LLMs, including predictive machine learning systems and embedded device AI, and establishing clear governance and accountability.

The governance workstream provides a comprehensive framework that can be used by healthcare organizations of all sizes to manage the cybersecurity risks in their own clinical environments and ensure that AI is used securely and responsibly. The objective of the secure by design workstream is to define and develop secure-by-design principles specifically for AI-enabled medical devices, including practical guidance and tools to empower manufacturers and stakeholders to ensure the cybersecurity of AI-enabled medical devices throughout the entire product lifecycle.

Third-party AI risks and supply chain transparency aims to strengthen security, trust, and resilience through the enhancement of visibility and transparency of third-party tools, establishing oversight and governance polices, and standardizing processes for procurement, vetting, and lifecycle management.

The guidance will help to improve awareness and understanding of critical risk areas and provides a roadmap for implementing new AI technologies while ensuring safety and responsible use.

The post HSCC Publishes Preview of Health Sector AI Cybersecurity Risk Guidance appeared first on The HIPAA Journal.