Numerous privacy incidents at health IT suppliers, hospitals and other healthcare organizations captured public attention last month.
Cybersecurity
Cambridge (Mass.) Health Alliance began notifying roughly 2,500 patients an unauthorized third party had some of their protected health information, according to a notice on the organization's website and reported by The Boston Globe.
A phishing email attack on Baltimore-based CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield may have comprised nearly 6,800 members' personal data, the company said March 30.
U.S. cities and states are falling victim to ransomware and other attacks, which typically target businesses and other organizations, Fox News reports.
An unauthorized party gained access to the usernames, scrambled passwords and email addresses of nearly 150 million users of Under Armour's health and fitness tracking app — MyFitnessPal — in February, according to Reuters.
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The HHS' Office for Civil Rights is considering a policy initiative to financially compensate victims of healthcare breaches, OCR Director Roger Severino said during a HIPAA summit presentation in Arlington, Va., March 27, BankInfoSecurity reports.
The HHS Office of Inspector General is in the midst of an ongoing investigation into the Healthcare Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, an HHS OIG spokesperson confirmed to Becker's Hospital Review March 28.
Although 79 percent of healthcare professionals expressed concern about the cybersecurity of their own healthcare information, 68 percent said their organizations are doing enough to protect patient privacy, according to a survey commissioned by cybersecurity firm Venafi.
Hackers broke into Baltimore's computer-assisted dispatch system, which supports the city's 911 and other emergency calls, causing city officials to revert to manual processes, according to NBC News.
Boeing, the U.S. aircraft manufacturer, is recovering from a limited malware attack, believed to be WannaCry, that affected a small number of its systems March 28, according to The Seattle Times.