Personally Identifiable Information

23andMe Data Security Event Raises Concerns for Minority Health Data

November 1, 2023 - Minority groups are at risk following a potential data security event involving 23andMe may have resulted in health-related data and personally identifiable information (PII) of certain minority groups exposed on the dark web. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) recently wrote to 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki, raising concerns that a data...


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Insight Global Settles Class Action Lawsuit After Contact Tracing Breach

by Sarai Rodriguez

Insight Global, the contact tracing program administrator hired by the state of Pennsylvania, has reached a proposed settlement to resolve a class-action healthcare data breach lawsuit. The breach,...

Illinois Medical Practice Settles Lawsuit After Data Breach Impacts 228K

by Sarai Rodriguez

Illinois Gastroenterology Group (IGG) has settled a class-action lawsuit for an undisclosed amount after a data breach puts the patient privacy of more than 227,943 individuals at risk. The lawsuit...

Rise Interactive Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over Healthcare Data Breach

by Sarai Rodriguez

Rise Interactive Media & Analytics was hit with proposed a class action healthcare data breach lawsuit in the aftermath of a November 2022 breach.  The law firm Wolf Haldenstein, Adler...

Inadequate Healthcare Cybersecurity Maturity Jeopardizes Patient Privacy

by Sarai Rodriguez

The healthcare sector ranks lowest in several cybersecurity maturity domains, according to CYE's first Cybersecurity Maturity Report, which suggests that even organizations that handle highly...

DC Health Link Healthcare Data Breach Exposes PHI of Congress Members

by Sarai Rodriguez

An unidentified threat actor has potentially exposed the personal health information (PHI) of hundreds of House of Representative members and staff in a recent healthcare data breach of health...

4 Organizations Report Recent Healthcare Data Breaches

by Sarai Rodriguez

Healthcare data breaches remain a persistent problem for healthcare organizations, with no signs of slowing down. Despite increased efforts to strengthen cybersecurity, the industry remains a prime...

Accounting Firm Faces Lawsuit Over Healthcare Data Breach

by Jill McKeon

Chicago-based accounting firm Bansley and Kiener (B&K) allegedly failed to notify impacted individuals of a healthcare data breach until more than six months after the incident, a lawsuit filed on...

West Virginia-Based Monongalia Health System Suffers Phishing Attack

by Jill McKeon

West Virginia-based Monongalia Health System (Mon Health), along with its affiliated hospitals Monongalia County General Hospital Company and Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital Company announced that...

Majority of Patients Don’t Trust Healthcare Providers to Handle PII

by Jill McKeon

Only 44 percent of surveyed patients reported trusting healthcare providers at private practices to safely handle their payment and personally identifiable information (PII), according to a survey...

Unprotected Database Exposes 170K Healthcare Staffing Records

by Jill McKeon

UPDATE 12/3/21: Gale Healthcare Solutions provided an update to HealthITSecurity. "The database was a temporary environment created for an internal system test. When the researcher notified us of a...

MI Man Sentenced to 7 Years in Prison for UPMC PII Breach

by Jill McKeon

A Michigan man was sentenced to a total of 84 months of incarceration for hacking the human resources databases of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and stealing the personally...

Organization-Wide PHI Access is Commonplace at Most Healthcare Orgs

by Jill McKeon

On average, nearly 20 percent of files were open to every employee at a given healthcare organization starting on their first day of employment, pointing to troubling data security issues and poor PHI...

BSIMM Study: Healthcare Lags Other Industries in Software Security

by Jill McKeon

Healthcare trails behind the financial services and insurance sectors in implementing software security initiatives, even though it is a highly regulated industry, according to the 2021 Building...

Alaska Health Department Notifies Residents of Cyberattack

by Jill McKeon

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) began notifying Alaska residents about a May 2021 cyberattack that impacted an unknown number of Alaskans and may have exposed protected...

Key Differences Between PHI and PII, How They Impact HIPAA Compliance

by Jill McKeon

Personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI) may seem similar on the surface, but key distinctions set them apart. While PII is a catch-all term for any information...

Walgreens’ COVID-19 Testing Registration System Exposes PII

by Jill McKeon

Millions who got COVID-19 tests at Walgreens may find that their personally identifiable information (PII) was left open on the internet for all to see, thanks to a cyber vulnerability found by...

MA Hospital Faces Class Action Suit After Paying Ransomware Attackers

by Jill McKeon

Massachusetts-based Sturdy Memorial Hospital is facing a class action lawsuit after a ransomware attack in February that impacted over 35,000 individuals and put personally identifiable information...

Beaumont Health Latest Victim of Accellion Data Breach

by Jill McKeon

Michigan-based Beaumont Health is the latest victim of the Accellion data breach, a December 2020 cyberattack that claimed 100 victims and counting. Millions of patients’ data were compromised...

Microsoft Vulnerability Leaks COVID-19 Vaccination Records in TX County

by Jill McKeon

UPDATE 9/3/21: An updated total of 326,417 individuals were impacted by the Denton County breach, HHS' Office for Civil Rights data breach portal confirmed. Denton County, Texas alerted its...