The federal government recovered $500,000 that two hospitals paid as ransom to North Korean hackers and plans to return the funds, according to a July 19 U.S. Justice Department statement.
Cybersecurity
St. Louis-based BJC HealthCare agreed to a class action lawsuit settlement to resolve allegations that its poor cybersecurity led to a May 2020 phishing attack that compromised sensitive patient data.
An iPad with protected health information was stolen from Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center in May, according to a July 17 report from City News Service of Southern California.
Washington, D.C.-based Foxhall OB/GYN Associates accused Sharon Malone, MD, a former owner and physician at the practice, of taking patient information with her when she exited the practice to join telehealth startup Alloy, The Washington Examiner reported July 14.
Platteville, Wis.-based healthcare provider Southwest Health Center informed patients and current and former employees that their personal data may have been accessed in a data security incident.
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A bill collector fell victim to a ransomware attack in February, potentially exposing the health information of more than 1.9 million patients, the federal government reported.
A data breach involving a third-party benefits administrator affected 130,922 health plan members, including employees of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and Wake Forest University, according to a July 1 submission to the HHS Office of Civil Rights.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is looking to hire a chief information security officer by the end of July, FedScoop reported July 7.
Corpus Christi, Texas-based Christus Spohn Health System notified patients of a May data breach that compromised the protected health information of 15,000 patients, ABC-affiliate KIII-TV reported July 11.
Strong cybersecurity architecture and threat management are essential to safeguarding internal and external access to healthcare organizations' systems, especially as those systems may harbor unknown vulnerabilities.