HIPAA Journal Cost of a Breach

Highlights From The HIPAA Journal
From the July 27th Newsletter

The HHS has imposed a $1,040,000 HIPAA penalty on Lifespan ACE

  • In 2017, the parent company of Lifespan ACE had a breach report created due to the theft of an unencrypted laptop. The laptop was left in a car in a parking lot that contained PHI and was broken in to.
  • There was over 20,400 patients that were affected by this attack.
  • Due to compliance failures which were associated with no business associate agreements between their parent company and healthcare provider affiliates, Lifespan ACE was fully responsible for the PHI being stolen.
  • Lifespan ACE agree to settle the case and pay the financial penalty.

2020 Cost of Data Breach Report from IBM Security

  • Healthcare breaches were the highest cost resolve.
  • The average cost of a healthcare data breach was $7.13 million globally and $8.6 million in the United States.

Republican Senators propose cash injection

  • A cash injection of $53 million for the DHS CISA was proposed to help limit vulnerabilities and enhance Federal network security to protect COVID-19 related research agencies.
  • The new legislation would make $306 billion available.

Recent cyber/ransomware attacks related to the Healthcare industry

  • The University of Utah experienced a phishing attacks that affected over 10,000 patients. Unauthorized access to employee emails was granted in the beginning of 2020 and lasted for over four months.
  • Highpoint Foot and Ankle Center (PA) suffered a ransomware attack in May of this year where 25,554 patients had information potentially compromised.
  • Due to looting and vandalism incidents in May and June of 2020, CVS informed patients that their information was potentially compromised. Over 21,000 individuals were likely affected by this attack.
  • Beaumont Health in Michigan had notified over 6,000 patients that their information was potentially compromised due to a phishing attack.

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