Stay updated with the latest healthcare cybersecurity trends, news, and tips to protect patient data and comply with medical industry security standards.
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Background for this topic.
Healthcare is the delivery of clinical care and related services through hospitals, clinics, laboratories, pharmacies, insurers, and connected medical devices. It depends on electronic health records (EHRs), patient identity systems, diagnostic and imaging platforms, medication and scheduling systems, and data exchanges between organizations. These environments hold sensitive health and payment information, while the availability and integrity of systems can affect treatment, diagnostics, and patient safety.
Security concerns include unauthorized access or disclosure of records, alteration of clinical data, and disruption of care through attacks on EHRs, connected devices, or third-party services. Defenses require risk-based access controls, strong authentication, network separation where appropriate, secure device and software maintenance, backups that support clinical continuity, and tested downtime and incident-response procedures. Vulnerability management must account for legacy systems and devices that cannot be patched quickly. Privacy and compliance obligations, such as HIPAA in the United States, shape how organizations collect, use, share, retain, and report health information.
Absolute Dental Says Breach Involved Third-Party Managed Services FirmA Nevada dental practice is notifying more than 1.2 million individuals of a hacking incident that compromised sensitive health and personal information. The incident involved "inadvertent execution of a malicious version of a legitimate software tool," said Absolute Dental.
Oslo University Hospital CSO Torkel Thune on Nordic Threat LandscapeTorkel Thune, head of the department for architecture, operational IT security and chief security officer at Oslo University Hospital, discusses how global shifts are affecting cybersecurity for the Nordic region, and how healthcare is especially vulnerable.
Senate HELP Committee Leaders Ask Insurer: What Went Wrong in the Cyberattack?A U.S. Senate committee is demanding details from insurance giant Aflac about the company's recent cyberattack that compromised the personal and health information of a yet undisclosed number of Americans. Senators last year gave the same scrutiny to the Change Healthcare mega-breach.
HHS Shifts 42 CFR Enforcement Duties to Office of Civil Rights Amid Massive ReorgThe U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has put its Office for Civil Rights in charge of investigating and penalizing organizations that breach the confidentiality of substance abuse disorder records. Some fear the agency doesn't have the bandwidth to enforce both HIPAA and 42 CFR Part 2.
Class Action Litigation Accused Mt. Sinai of Sending Patient Info to FacebookA New York City healthcare system has agreed to pay nearly $5.3 million to settle a proposed class action lawsuit alleging that the hospital's use of online tracking tools in its patient portal and website sent patient information to Facebook without their knowledge or consent for years.
Crime Gang 'Underground' Claimed Data Theft From Healthcare Services GroupA publicly traded Pennsylvania-based firm that provides dining, housekeeping and laundry services to long-term care and skilled nursing facilities is notifying nearly 624,500 people of a 2024 hacking incident that took nearly nine months for the company to investigate.
Farmers' HIPAA Breach Affects 1.1 Million; Aflac Is Still Counting VictimsTwo major U.S.-based insurers - Farmers Insurance and Aflac Inc. - have each reported to regulators data breaches involving two recent separate cyberattacks. The breaches follow a spring and summer spree of data exfiltration incidents that hit multiple large players in the insurance sector.