Data security news and information

Healthcare organizations seeking to maximize the number of patient records they can expose through a given security breach should consider contracting for professional help. I'm only being partially facetious.
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An orthopedic clinic in Raleigh, N.C., was apparently the latest victim of a scam in which patient X-ray films are destroyed by scammers to harvest the silver they contain, according to a privacy-breach notification involving 17,300 patients.
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The University of Rochester (N.Y.) Medical Center has notified 537 patients of a security breach involving their medical records after an unencrypted flash drive went missing.
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Five health insurance carriers and a major drugstore chain will require their business associates to participate in an independent security-assessment program sponsored by the Health Information Trust Alliance, or HITRUST.
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The rising tide of smartphones and other mobile computing devices and their impact on healthcare information network security were the key concerns raised by healthcare IT executives in a focus group session and a subsequent report by HIMSS Analytics.
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Over the past three years, about 21 million patients have had their medical records exposed in data security breaches that were big enough to require they be reported to the federal government. The Office for Civil Rights has been updating a list of the breaches, known to the healthcare industry as...
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Earlier this year, HHS issued their final rule to modify HIPAA—the 1996 legislation that's the beating heart of healthcare security, privacy and data portability. The lack of data portability continues to plague the industry—but the security and privacy are getting more serious with...
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Utah’s 2012 health data breach—a security slip that exposed the personal information of three-quarters of a million residents to hackers—was a costly mistake. The state has spent about $9 million on security audits, upgrades and credit monitoring for victims—and that’s...
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The attorney leading an investigation into allegations the 911 dispatch center in Monroeville, Pa., violated federal privacy laws is giving residents a "heads up" to check their personal information to ensure it's secure.
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Simply knowing all the rules could prevent many of the problems plaguing data security and privacy among healthcare providers and insurers.
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