Leon Rodriguez, director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently conducted an interview with HealthcareInfoSecurity. Click on the link to listen to the full interview. Rodriguez gave some valuable insight into OCR’s plans for 2013 and beyond as well as guidance that organizations should follow to protect...
In our post New reality: EMRs held hostage we discuss the Australian medical center that had their EMR encrypted. The hackers then demanded $4,000 ransom to decrypt the EMR. Let’s take a look at how something like this can happen. The more you know about how hackers can get into your network the better you...
Dom Nicastro over at HCPro gives insight into the status of the OCR audit program for 2013. Top OCR officials have made it clear the audit program will continue next year, says Mac McMillan, FHIMSS, CISM, cofounder and CEO of CynergisTek, Inc., in Austin, Texas. There will be more audits going forward; HITECH requires them,...
Data security and protecting valuable information is the new Wild West. There is a constant battle between trying to protect data and criminals intent on stealing or hacking data. In a story that broke yesterday, Russian cyber criminals have hacked into a medical organization and held their patient information ransom. The Australian medical center, Miami...
By now many people have heard of the HHS Wall of Shame. The Wall of Shame refers to the list of organizations that have had a breach affecting 500 or more individuals. The list includes the name of the organization, the date of the breach, the approximate number of individuals affected, the type of breach...
According to a report produced by the Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST), there has been little progress in reducing the amount of healthcare related data breaches. A close look at the HHS data reveals that since 2009 the industry has experienced 495 breaches involving 21 million records at an estimated cost of $4 billion. With...
When people think of the HIPAA Security Rule many think about protecting the privacy / confidentiality of patient information. Privacy is a major part of HIPAA security but also ensuring the availability of patient information is equally important. Let’s take a look at the HIPAA Security General Rules: § 164.306 Security standards: General rules. (a)...
We write a lot about protecting patient information and HIPAA security. It is widely known that over 20 million patient records have been breached in the past few years. Have you ever thought about some of the consequences of breach medical information? We came across a very interesting blog article over at 403 Blogs. 403...
The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) was handed a $1.7 million fine by the Office of Civil Rights (OCR). The fine is one of the largest imposed on an organization. A closer look reveals why the fine was so large. Healthcare Info Security gives an in-depth look at the fine. The Alaska...
OCR released the details of the HIPAA audit protocol. There aren’t a lot of surprises in their list of items they look for during an audit. The protocol looks like a summary of the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules with the addition of the Breach Notification Rule. There are 77 items for HIPAA Security and...
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