Cybersecurity news for hospitals and health systems

Kingman (Ariz.) Regional Medical Center is notifying patients of a potential security incident that has left its website down since April 8, the Daily Miner reports.

The Vermont Supreme Court has ruled that patients can file lawsuits against hospitals and employees for privacy breaches, according to the HIPAA Journal.

For hospitals and health systems looking to overhaul or update their security infrastructure, there are three things to consider, according to Fawn Staerkel, director of strategic accounts at Johnson Controls and cited by Campus Safety Magazine.

Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Mercy Health began notifying approximately 1,000 patients on May 24 about a data breach that may have exposed patient data, according to mlive.com.

Senators have begun investigating the Quest Diagnostic and Laboratory Corp. of America vendor data breach that exposed nearly 20 million patients, according to The Hill.

Opko Health is the third healthcare company to learn its patients were affected in the American Medical Collection Agency data breach, according to Reuters.

Since Jan. 1, hospitals and health systems have experienced varying sized data breaches. Some had to alert close to 1 million patients their information may have been exposed, while others only issued notices to a few hundred.

Hackers may soon be able to steal passwords and other data by simply analyzing the sounds of typing on different devices, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Medical testing company Laboratory Corp. of America learned 7.7 million of its patients may have had their data exposed in the same vendor breach as Quest Diagnostics, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Some personal information from University of Chicago Medicine patients and donors was mistakenly exposed on June 3, the health system confirmed to the Chicago Tribune.