Cybersecurity

Jeffrey Parker, who falsely portrayed himself as a whistleblower and framed a Georgia hospital employee of violating HIPAA, was sentenced to six months in federal prison, according to a Feb. 23 Effingham Herald report.

St. Margaret’s Health–Spring Valley (Ill.) has shut down its computer network in response to a cyberattack Feb. 21, Shaw Local News Tribune reports. 

Hospital data breaches increased nationwide in 2020, affecting around 26.4 million people in the U.S., according to a study published Feb. 19 by cloud security platform Bitglass.

Technology companies and federal organizations are increasingly collecting users' personal data, spurring calls for more regulation to protect individual privacy.  The nation's approach to this regulation must balance privacy concerns alongside the social benefits of greater access to this data,…

Kroger confirmed Feb. 19 that some pharmacy customers may be affected by Accellion's data breach, which they employed for third-party file transfers.

Harvard Eye Associates and Alicia Surgery Center, both in Laguna Hills, Calif., recently began notifying almost 30,000 patients that their protected health information was exposed in a ransomware attack on their IT vendor. 

Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services recently suffered a cyberattack that let unauthorized actors access its computer network, according to a Feb. 18 statement from the Gallup, N.M.-based hospital.

Facebook will no longer collect unauthorized data about people's medical and other sensitive information following recommendations from a New York Department of Financial Services investigation, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Private hospitals in the U.S. can access a free ransomware protection service funded by the Center for Internet Security. 

HHS has waived some HIPAA requirements for Texas healthcare providers to assist in disaster relief after winter storms caused water and power outages across the state.