Small Medical Offices Biggest Risk to Patient Data Security, Privacy

Small physician practices, much like their small commercial business counterparts, have been the primary source of health care related data breaches, according to an analysis of breaches from 2009 to October 2012 released today by the Health Information Trust Alliance HITRUST. These smaller medic...

Study Examines Security and Privacy in Computer-Related Medical Device Recalls

Nearly one-third of all recalled medical devices contain computers, and half of those are recalled because of computer-related problems, according to a recent study. ‘Security and Privacy Qualities of Medical Devices: An Analysis of FDA Postmarket Surveillance’ was funded by the Department of...

Watchdog Says Government Failing To Enforce HIPAA Privacy Protections

The Government Accountability Office GAO is warning that the U.S. government hasn’t lived up to promises to protect the privacy of Medicare patients who use the federal government’s Prescription Drug Benefit and not following through on promises to audit organizations that store patient health...

DHS Warns About Threat Of Mobile Devices In Healthcare

In a bulletin, the Department of Homeland Security DHS is warning healthcare organizations about the threat posed by insecure, network attached medical devices and the proliferation of smart phones, tablet PCs and other mobile devices in medical settings. DHS’s National Cybersecurity and...

Real World Security – Larry Whiteside Interview

Like every other security executive in the health care industry, Larry Whiteside, CISO of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, spends much of his time dealing with compliance-related issues. But the distributed nature of his user population means that he has sensitive patient data on thousands...

The Berkeley breach: Is SaaS the answer?

One recent Friday afternoon I took time off to visit two new health providers: a new dentist nearer my home and an orthopedic to look at my lateral epicondylitis. In both cases, as a new patient, I filled in page after page of medical history and personal information, including my Social Security...