Cybersecurity news for hospitals and health systems

The California Department of State Hospitals recently discovered that an employee data breach uncovered in February affected about 2,952 more individuals than initially believed. 

A former IT employee at Rochester, N.Y.-based Trillium Health pleaded guilty April 5 to computer fraud after stealing personal photos and information from several co-workers, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports.

Personal Touch Holding Corp., the parent company of Personal Touch Home Care centers across the U.S., recently began notifying 753,107 patients and employees of a ransomware attack on its cloud-stored business records.

BioTel Heart began informing 38,575 patients that a vendor data breach may have left their personal information exposed for nearly a year.

On March 25, the Bethesda, Md.-based Centers for Advanced Orthopaedics began notifying 125,291 patients, employees and dependents of a cyberattack that took place over a yearlong breach.

Stanford University is investigating claims that hackers stole personal data from its medical school and published the information online, according to an April 1 Mercury News report. 

Homeland Security Investigations shut down seven fake COVID-19 vaccine, pharmacy and other pandemic-related websites, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. 

Aspirus and OSF Healthcare have joined Memorial Hermann Health System and University of Chicago Medicine in notifying their patients of a 2019 data breach in which a former employee at revenue cycle management vendor Med-Data uploaded patients' personal information.

The addition of Trillium Community Health Plan has raised the tally to five healthcare-related organizations that have been affected by the data breach of file transfer vendor Accellion.

Healthcare organizations have a responsibility to protect health information from getting in the wrong hands. However, that data may be too easily accessible, according to a March 29 Varonis report.