Cybersecurity news for hospitals and health systems

Six Russian military officers have been charged in worldwide computer hacking incidents, including the June 2017 malware attack on Beaver, Pa.-based Heritage Valley Health System. 

Ann Arbor-based Michigan Medicine sent out a mass email about an inflammatory bowel disease event without hiding recipients' emails, potentially exposing health information of more than a thousand patients.

Throughout 2020, healthcare organizations have agreed to pay millions of dollars to settle HIPAA violations with HHS' Office for Civil Rights.

The X-ray technician charged in the sexual abuse of a patient at a Troy, Mo., hospital this week no longer works there but may have other victims, according to a report from WTRF, a local ABC affiliate.

Beaufort (S.C.) Memorial inadvertently mailed patient letters that enclosed the wrong patients' information, according to a statement from the hospital.

Ashtabula (Ohio) County Medical Center reopened its inpatient hospital unit Oct. 13, three weeks after a cyberattack that forced its computer system offline, according to a report from the Star Beacon.

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner,D-Va., sent a letter to King of Prussia, Pa.-based Universal Health Services filled with questions about a recent cyberattack that threatened operations at the health system's 400 locations.

About a third of healthcare organizations experienced a ransomware attack during the pandemic's early months, according to software company Netwrix's "2020 Cyber Threats Report." 

Pontiac, Mich.-based McLaren Oakland discovered a file containing an unauthorized and unsecured link to a patient information file on a hospital computer desktop that contained patients' information, according to a Click on Detroit report.

So far in 2020, 412 healthcare organizations reported to HHS a collective total of 20,659,038 individuals being affected by data breaches.