Patrick Kennedy is a highly accomplished journalist and editor with nearly two decades of experience in the field. With expertise in writing and editing content, Patrick has made significant contributions to various publications and organizations. Over the course of his career, Patrick has successfully managed teams of writers, overseeing the production of high-quality content and ensuring its adherence to professional standards. His exceptional leadership skills, combined with his deep understanding of journalistic principles, have allowed him to create cohesive and engaging narratives that resonate with readers. A notable area of specialization for Patrick lies in compliance, particularly in relation to HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). He has authored numerous articles delving into the complexities of compliance and its implications for various industries. Patrick's comprehensive understanding of HIPAA regulations has positioned him as a go-to expert, sought after for his insights and expertise in this field.
Patrick's bachelors degree is from the University of Limerick and his master's degree in journalism is from Dublin City University. You can contact Patrick through his LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pkkennedy/
The significance consumers place on the privacy and security of their health information has been reviewed in a recent nCipher Security survey. The survey i question was aimed at 1,300 U.S. consumers and looked into attitudes toward online privacy, the sharing of...
The HITECH Act – or Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act – forms a portion of an economic stimulus program introduced prior to President Trump taking office: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The Act was signed...
The Director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released a warning after a rise in cyberattacks by ‘Iranian regime actors.’ The warning from Christopher C. Krebs came as tensions are mounting between...
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released the findings of an audit of all federal government systems that operate legacy systems. The focus of the audit was to determine the extent to which legacy software and systems are in use, and which departments...
The Ullico Inc. subsidiary, Union Labor Life Insurance (ULLI), is alerting more than 87,000 plan members that a portion of their protected health information (PHI) has been exposed due to a staff member responding to a phishing email. As is often the case in...
Healthcare cybersecurity’s poor state has been emphasised by a recent Forescout study. The study showed the healthcare sector is using legacy software, vulnerable protocols are extensively in use, and medical devices are not properly safeguarded. 75 global...
A ransomware attack has resulted in widespread file encryption at the Southeastern Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (SCADD) in Lebanon, CT. The attack was discovered on February 18, 2019 when problems started to be noticed with its network. The investigation...
According to a report released by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) and OneTrust, prior to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) becoming enforceable on January 1, 2020, nearly 50% of all companies will not be ready to comply with...
The results of recent research conducted by the consultancy firm CynergisTek has shown that healthcare groups are not adhering with NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) controls and the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules. For the study, CynergisTek reviewed the results of...
Main Line Endoscopy Centers, a group of outpatient endoscopy facilities based the Malvern, Bala Cynwyd, and Media regions of Pennsylvania, has notices an unauthorized person obtained access to the email account of one of its staff members following a response to a...
The results of a new study, conducted by privacy compliance company TrustArc, in relation to the level of preparedness for California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) will lead to a lot of worry among tech groups based in California. It indicates that 86% of companies that...
Our February 2018 healthcare data breach report lists the major data breaches reported by healthcare groups, health plans, and business associates in February 2018. Even though February is a shorter month, but there was a rise in the number of healthcare data breaches...
Several healthcare groups have asked for leniency to be shown for healthcare organizations that would mean avoiding financial penalties for breaches of protected health information if the breached entity that has implemented certain standards for securing protected...
The IRS has kicked off its 2019 ‘Dirty Dozen’ campaign alerting taxpayers about the dangers of the most common tax-related phishing scams that result in tax fraud and identity theft. Every year the IRS supplies provides taxpayers, businesses, and tax professionals...
UConn Health is making contact with almost 326,000 clients that some of their personal data was accessible due to a phishing attack on some of its staff members. UConn Health discovered the phishing breach on December 24, 2018. All email accounts were protected, and...
The California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA) is due to become enforceable on January 1, 2020. Corporations, government agencies and other groups will be using 2019 to prepare for the new legislation. The proposed legislation allows Californian residents the following...
ICS-CERT has released a waring in relation to three high severity vulnerabilities in the IDenticard PremiSys access control system. All versions of PremiSys software before version 4.1 are affected by the flaws. If the vulnerabilities are effectively targeted it could...
Patients of Community Health Systems’ (CHS), who had their protected health information (PHI) illegally obtains in a hacking attack in 2014 have been offered compensation in relation to the violation of their private Private Health Information (PHI). Tennessee-based...
North Caroline Attorney General Josh Stein and state representative Jason Saine have introduced a bill to moderize data breach notification laws in the state and increase protections for state residents after an increase in data breaches affecting North Carolina...
A ransomware attack that has possibly resulted in the theft of plan subscriber’ protected health information has been reported by a business associate of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. This is the second recent data breach affecting Blue Cross Blue Shield of...
After an employee set up a mail forwarder to broadcast emails to a personal email account, Choice Rehabilitation of Creve Coeur, MO has discovered an unauthorized person illegally logged into a that corporate email account. The breach took place on July 1, 2018 and...
A phishing attack has potentially been compromised the private personal data of 8,400 patients of the Humana-owned Family Physicians Group in Orlando who are are being notified as a result of the breach. Family Physicians Group is one of the biggest providers of...
Notification are being sent to existing and former patients of the Dental Center of Northwest Ohio in Toledo to advise them that some of their protected health information may have been exposed due to a ransomware attack on one of its vendors. Managed IT service...
A new study by the consultancy firm Censuswide has revealed the extent to which employees are being tricked by phishing emails and how despite the danger of a data breaches and regulatory fines, many firms are not providing security awareness training to their staff....
Following the installation of ransomware and malware on a server belonging to Mind & Motion Developmental Centers of Georgia, it has been revealed that the group responsible which may have been able to access to 16,000 patients protected health information. The...
Almost 48,000 patients and guarantors may had their the payment information compromised Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in Frisco in a privacy breach which was noticed recently. The medical center, which is jointly operated by United Surgical Partners...
6,450 patients of Prairie Fields Family Medicine based in Fremont, NE are being made aware that their protected health information may have been compromised after it was included in an unencrypted spreadsheet that was sent to the incorrect email recipient. The email...
The winners of the Easy EHR Issues Reporting Challenge have been announced by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). At present, reporting EHR safety concerns is a tiresome process that...
Cancer Centers of America’s Western Regional Medical Center, located in Bullhead City, has revealed that a staff email account has been hacked following a phishing email attack. The phishing email seems to have been broadcast from the staff email account of a Cancer...
Georgia Spine and Orthopaedics of Atlanta (GSOA) is contacting thousands of patients to make them aware that some of their protected health information has been made accessible, and possibly stolen, due to a phishing attack. An inquest into the data breach showed that...
AccuDoc Solutions Inc., a supplier of healthcare billing services, has discovered a major data privacy breach in which the protected health information of 2,650,000 patients of Atrium Health was accessed by hackers. Morrisville, NC-based AccuDoc Solutions puts...
FHN Healthcare, which runs FHN Memorial Hospital in Freeport, IL, and a group of family healthcare centers located in northwest Illinois, has discovered that a laptop computer storing the protected health information of 4,458 clients has been stolen from the car of a...
Florida-based Key Dental Group has made contact with its patients about a suspected HIPAA breach which may have led to the unauthorized release of their protected health information (PHI). After amended its electronic medical record (EMR) database supplier, Key...
In October, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) revealed that the HealthCare.gov online portal had been hacked and the sensitive data of around 75,000 individuals had possibly been obtained. This week, the CMS released an update on the privacy...
Vancouver, Washington, based Southwest Washington Regional Surgery Center has been hit by a phishing attack that has lead to the exposure of 2,393 patients’ protected health information. The breach was restricted to a single staff email account and no proof was found...
Virginia based Inova Health System has started to contact 12,331 patients to advise them that some of their protected health information has been obtained by an unauthorized person. Law enforcement contacted Inova Health System on September 5, 2018 in relation to a...
Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, NY, is getting in touch with 1,216 patients to advise them that some of their protected health information (PHI) has been impermissibly accessed by a former member of staff. Upstate University Hospital first identified the...
A $200,000 settlement has been agreed with Best Medical Transcription in relation to HIPAA breaches that were discovered during an investigation of a 2016 breach of 1,650 clients’ protected health information. Best Medical Transcription, a business associate of Virtua...
According to the most recent Beazley’s Q3 Breach Insights Report, Cyber Criminal campaigns attacks are increasing once again and healthcare is the most targeted sector. Ransomware attacks on healthcare groups comprised 37% of those managed by Beazley Breach Response...
Around 10,000 patients of Raley’s Pharmacy are being contacted to inform them that some of their protected health information (PHI) has potentially been impacted in a data breach. On September 24, 2018, a laptop computer was taken from a Raley’s pharmacy that may have...
Jones Eye Clinic and its affiliated surgery center, CJ Elmwood Partners, L.P, in Sioux City, IA has revealed that the protected health information of up to 40,000 of its patients may have been compromised.The private data breach occurred following a ransomware attack...
Michigan Medicine is contacting over 3,600 patients to make them aware of an impermissible disclosure of a restricted amount of their protected health information. In early September 2018, the Michigan Medicine Development Office initiated a fundraising campaign that...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released a warning about flaws in certain Medtronic implantable cardiac device programmers which could possibly be targeted by hackers to alter the functionality of the programmer during implantation or follow up visits....
Biomarin Pharmaceutical, based in Novato, CA-based has discovered two staff email accounts have been compromised due to a phishing attack in which a non-permanent employee’s login details were obtained by the hacker. The attack was noticed on June 21, 2018 and swift...
Letters have been mailed to approximately 21,000 individuals on medical assistance by the Minnesota Department of Human Services to alert them of a potential breach of their protected health information (PHI) due to two phishing campaigns which took place recently....
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (HHS OIG) is highlighting awareness of the measures it implements to address cyberthreats within the HHS and the healthcare sector as a whole and is implementing measure to raise transparency of...
A data breach, that saw the highly sensitive protected health information of 93 lower-income HIV positive individuals stolen by unauthorized individuals, will go to trial after a lawsuit submitted by Lambda Legal on behalf of a victim survived a motion to dismiss....
A not-for-profit 115-bed community hospital in Ogdensburg, NY, Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center has sacked several employees for accessing patient health records without official permission.The PHI breaches were identified during an internal review. It is not yet...
Uber, the peer-to-peer ridesharing, taxi cab, food delivery, bicycle-sharing and transportation network company has settled a fine in relation to a 2016 cyber-attack that exposed data from 57 million customers and drivers for $148m. The payment in question settles the...
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI) is contacting 1,567 plan subscribers that a portion of their protected health information has been impermissibly made accessible by one of its business partners. A BCBSRI vendor was hired to issue explanation of...
A former staff member of the emergency department of Brooklyn’s Kings County Hospital is accused of stealing the protected health information of at least 100 patients while employed there. The same person is accused of sharing this information to another individual...
The New York Attorney General has fined the Arc of Erie County $200,000 by breaching HIPAA Rules when it did not secure the electronic protected health information (ePHI) of its customers. The Arc of Erie County, a nonprofit social services agency and chapter of the...
Several studies have been conducted to assess the cost of cybercrime in the United States, although there is little data on the cost of cyberattacks in Germany. That has been addressed with a recent survey that sought to assess the extent to which German firms are...
Honolulu-based Fetal Diagnostic Institute of the Pacific (FDIP) was hit by a ransomware attack on June 30 this year. File-encrypting software was uploaded to an FDIP server and encrypted a wide range of file types some of which were patient medical records. FDIP...
Reliable Respiratory, a Norwood, MA-based respiratory care organisation has been subjected to a phishing attack that has impacted several thousand of its clients. A cyberattack was first noticed on July 3, 2018, after the detection of unusual activity in an staff...
The New Mexico Department of Health is trying to ascertain how the private medical records of some of its clients came to fall from a truck while being taken from the hospital to a secure storage center. The records originated at Turquoise Lodge Hospital, a...
A mailing mistake that was sent to Missouri Care subscribers reminding them to reserve well-child visits has resulted in the accidental disclosure of the personal data of approximately 20,000 children to other Missouri Care subscribers. The personal information...
Authentic Recovery Center, a West Los Angeles-based drug and alcohol treatment center, is contacting 1,790 clients to inform them that some of their personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI) may have been stolen by an...
A survey carried out by Ovum for analytics firm FICO has pointed to the fact that there has been a sharp rise in companies signing up for cybersecurity insurance, but the healthcare sector in general has been slow to follow this trend. In 2017 when the previous survey...
Central Colorado Dermatology (CCD) has made contact with over 4,000 clients that some of their protected health information (PHI) has possibly been obtained by cyber criminals during a ransomware attack on its IT systems. An unauthorized person obtained access to...
Most HIPAA covered bodies, business associates, and healthcare workers take lots of precautions care to ensure HIPAA Rules are adhered to, but what happens when there is accidental HIPAA violation? How should healthcare workers, covered bodies, and business associates...
InterAct of Michigan, a provider of mental health and substance abuse treatments through health centers in Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, has found an unauthorized person has obtained access to the email account of a staff member and may have viewed and copied the...
Over 258,000 people have had their personal health information, personal identification information and/or tax information accessible online due to a data security incident in Adams County, Wisconsin. A possible security breach was discovered on March 28, 2018 after...
A group of urgent care clinics in Atlanta, Chicago, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Houston, MedSpring Urgent Care has identified a breach that occurred when an unauthorized individual has gained access to an email account due to an employee being tricked by a...
Jefferson City, Missouri based SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital is contacting hundreds of thousands of patients to warn them that some of their protected health information has been left unprotected and may have have been accessed by unauthorized parties. On November...
A not-for-profit health system that operates Central Washington Hospital, Wenatchee Valley Hospital and a dozen satellite clinics in Central and North Central Washington, has experienced a data breach incident involving a staff member’s email account that may have...
A huge UnityPoint Health phishing attack has been reported to the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) , one in which the protected health information of up to 1.4 million patients could have been obtained by cyber criminals. So far, this phishing incident is the...
A mistake has resulted in the exposure of more than 19,000 patients’ protected health information (PHI) took place during a software upgrade on a server owned by a transcription service provider. Patients impacted by the breach had attended Orlando Orthopaedic Center...
A class action lawsuit submitted after a staff-member related data breach at Flowers Hospital in Dothan, Alabama in 2014 is likely to be settled. The settlement is awaiting final court approval, although approval seems imminent and a resolution to this four-year legal...
AK-based billing company, Golden Heart Administrative Professionals, a Fairbanks is alerting 44,600 people that some of their protected health information has potentially been obtained by unauthorized people due a recent ransomware attack. The ransomware was placed on...
An employee’s email account, that contained the protected health information of approximately 8,400 patients of Billings Clinic in Billings, MT has been illegally accessed. The breach was discovered by the clinic’s cybersecurity systems on May 14, 2018, with...
Cass Regional Medical Center in Harrisonville, MO suffered a ransomware attack at Around 11am on Monday July 9 that impacted its communication system and stopped staff from logging onto its electronic medical record (EHR) system. The clinic had measures in place for...
A former staff member of Arkansas Children’s Hospital is being investigated by law authorities in relation to the theft and misuse of patients’ protected health information. The breach notice submitted to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil...
In 2016, Radnor, PA-based Main Line Health Inc., fired a member of staff for breaching Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Rules by viewing the personal records of a co-worker without authorization on two different occasions. In such instances,...
Manitowoc County in Wisconsin has revealed that protected health information has been illegally obtained due to a successful phishing attack. The incident happened close to January 14, 2018, although the attack and data breach was not identified until April 24. While...
Humana is contacting members across the US to notify them that their PHI may have been been accessed during a ‘sophisticated’ spoofing campaign. A spoofing attack refers to a concerted effort by a threat actor or bot to gain access to a system or data using illegally...
On June 28, 2018, California passed AB 375, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA), which will become effective January 1, 2020. It is thought that this will be the first of many State laws in the United States inspired by European Union’s General...
The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (ADHSS) is contacting ‘more than 500’ individuals to inform them that some of their protected health information (PHI) may have been accessed by hackers. On April 26, the ADHSS found that malware had been placed on...
In the past few days, Associated Dermatology & Skin Cancer Clinic of Helena, MT, has reported a breach of physical protected health information (PHI) that may have impacted up to 1,254 patients. A journal managed by an employee of Associate Dermatology was taken...
Med Associates the health billing company, located in Latham, NY-based, which provides claims services to over 70 healthcare providers, has found that an employee’s computer has been logged onto by an unauthorized individual. It is possible that the hacker obtained to...
ICS-CERT has released a warning after identifying eight vulnerabilities in version 8 of Natus Xltek NeuroWorks software implemented in Natus Xltek EEG medical products. If the weaknesses are successfully exploited they could allow a hacker to crash a vulnerable device...
After what is believed to have been inappropriate accessing of patient health records by staff members, Washington Health System has decided to suspend several staff members while the privacy breach is reviewed. While it has not been revealed how many staff members...
New guidance for HIPAA-covered bodies to streamline HIPAA authorizations for uses of protected health information for research purposes has been released by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights , as required by the 21st Century Cures...
The results of a HIMSS survey has revealed that medical device security is a strategic focus for most healthcare groups, yet fewer than 50% of healthcare providers have an approved budget for addressing security weaknesses in medical devices. For the survey, HIMSS...
A phishing attack has been experienced by the Florida Agency for Persons with Disabilities (FAPD), which provides support services for people with disabilities such as autism, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, and Downs syndrome. The phishing attack took place on April...
A former member of staff at the Veteran Affairs Medical Center located in Long Beach, CA who illegally stole the protected health information (PHI) of over 1,000 patients has been given a three-year jail sentence. Albert Torres, 51, was working as a clerk in the Long...
Two HIPAA-covered organizations are making their patients aware that some of their protected health information (PHI) has been stolen by unauthorized individuals in recent times. PHI Stolen from Staff Member of Christus Spohn Hospitals The protected health information...
HealthEquity Inc. has been hit by a phishing attack leading to the exposure of members’ protected health information. The data breach was restricted to one email account, although a review of the messages in the account showed a range of PHI was potentially stolen by...
A staff member at Phoenix-based Terros Health was tricked by a phishing scam and mistakenly handed over login credentials to the hacker. That person accessed the employee’s email account and may have viewed or obtained a range of protected health information listed in...
The results of a recent survey conducted by Black Book Research show that 90% of hospitals and 94% of physicians have implemented mobile technology and believe that it is helping to enhance patient safety and outcomes, . The survey was carried out on 770...
3,700 plan members of Rise Wisconsin are being warned that some of their protected health information may have been obtained by unauthorized people during a recent ransomware attack. It is estimated that the ransomware was placed on on its IT systems around April 8,...
A nurse practitioner who breached the privacy of patients by sharing their contact information with her new employer has been suspended for 12 months by the New York State Education Department. In April 2015, Martha C. Smith-Lightfoot obtaine a spreadsheet containing...
Towards the end of last week social media giant Facebook revealed it experienced a data privacy breach last week that placed 14 million users of the platform in danger. From May 18 and 27, a technical glitch meant that the privacy settings for new posts was...
Aetna have launched fresh attempts to recover some of the expenses they incurred in the ongoing legal battles in relation to a 2017 privacy breach involving the exposure of patients’ sensitive health information. A new lawsuit has been submitted by the insurance...
An official advisory over weaknesses impacting certain Phillips IntelliVue Patient and Avalon Fetal monitors has been released by the Department of Homeland Security’s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT). Three weaknesses have been...
