Emails landed in the inboxes of employees at several Massachusetts hospitals, seeking COVID-19 statistics for the Department of Health and Human Services. On the surface, the notices seemed innocuous, a chance to assist in the fight against the devastating coronavirus pandemic. Except for this: The emails were a hoax — and a dangerous one at that, according to a report in the Boston Business Journal. The phishing emails sought illegal access to the hospitals’ systems. Such emails — which … [Read more...]
COVID-19 contact-tracing apps spread; so do privacy worries
Despite concerns about potential privacy issues, multiple states have been moving ahead with apps designed to alert people who may have been exposed to COVID-19 — a technology-based tool in the fight against a pandemic that has claimed more than 212,000 U.S. lives. Roughly a dozen states have released contact-tracing apps, according to an Oct. 1 report by The New York Times. California was not listed among the states, though some localities are pursuing such apps. And Google said on its blog … [Read more...]
New decade, new worries: Cyber security concerns rise
Cyber threats have business risk management experts more nervous than ever before a pair of new surveys finds. For employees, this indicates the need that increasing numbers of employers take seriously their responsibility guarding personal information, but it also means the threat has grown. Heading into 2020, 39 percent of risk management experts responding to the Allianz Risk Barometer ranked cyber incidents as the most important business risk globally — for the first time pushing that … [Read more...]
Healthcare Data Breaches Continue to Rise – What’s at Risk for You?
While HIPAA Journal has reported an ascending trend over nearly the past decade in healthcare data breaches, 2019 has seen the industry reporting record numbers. A historic number of records have been exposed daily, trending at a rate of one (occasionally even two) data breaches per day. The resulting 31.6 million healthcare records breached from January 2019 to June 2019 is double the number exposed for all of 2018. Since then July and August claimed gold and silver medals, respectively, … [Read more...]
The California Consumer Privacy Act is coming – who qualifies, and what will it mean for you?
The nation’s toughest privacy law takes effect in California on Jan. 1, offering residents the most comprehensive protection for their personal information. The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 gives consumers the right to know what data a business is tracking, why, and how that data is used. It also requires businesses to comply with deletion requests and to treat the same as any other consumers those who opt out of having their information shared (i.e. no charging higher prices or … [Read more...]