Health insurance giant Anthem, Inc. agreed to the largest data breach settlement to-date last week, ending multi-district consumer litigation over a 2015 data breach for $115 million. The data breach, which resulted from a hacker-orchestrated cyberattack following the theft of an employee password, exposed personally identifiable information (“PII”) and protected health information (“PHI”) of nearly […]
Health Privacy
Advocate Health Care Network Agrees to Pay $5.55 Million to Settle Potential HIPAA Penalties
On August 4, 2016, the Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced that Advocate Health Care Network (“Advocate”), Illinois’ largest fully-integrated health care system, has agreed to pay a record-breaking $5.55 million to settle claims of multiple Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) violations involving electronic protected health information (“ePHI”). The substantial settlement stems from […]
HHS/OCR Announces Launch of HIPAA Audit Program Phase 2
Today, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’s (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced the launch of Phase 2 of its HIPAA Compliance Audit Program. (OCR’s announcement can be accessed at Audit Phase 2 Announcement and further information about Phase 2 can be accessed at Audit Phase 2 Information.) In this phase, OCR will […]
HHS Issues HIPAA Security Rule Crosswalk with NIST Cybersecurity Framework
Last week, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released a crosswalk between the requirements of the HIPAA Security Rule and the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. The crosswalk – which was developed in conjunction with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT – maps each […]
FTC PrivacyCon Event Examines Cutting-Edge Research and Current Policies Regarding Privacy and Data Security
The Federal Trade Commission held its PrivacyCon event, featuring nineteen presentations showcasing original research regarding important consumer privacy and security issues by leading academics from universities and think tanks from around the world. A full video recording of the webcast is available here. The conference took place in Washington on Jan. 14, 2016, and included […]