As tax season winds on, the W-2 form scam has emerged as one of the most dangerous and common phishing email schemes during this time of year.
W-2s are information-rich documents containing an employee’s name, Social Security number, address, salary, and other personal information. Each year, cyber criminals target these documents in order to sell the sensitive information contained therein and to submit fraudulent tax returns in hopes of defrauding the IRS.
Continue Reading
On February 7, 2019, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published the resolution agreement for its final HIPAA settlement of 2018. The resolution agreement cited two breach notifications that OCR received from the parent of several hospitals in California. In 2013, the provider notified OCR of a breach that occurred when one of its contractors removed electronic security protections from a server. This breach affected more than 50,000 individuals. In 2015, the provider submitted notice of a second breach, this one resulting from an employee’s activation of the wrong website, affecting more than 11,000 individuals.
Continue Reading
As we turn the page on 2018, let’s reflect on some of the key privacy and cybersecurity issues that will continue to occupy our hearts and minds in 2019.
Owning the Mega-Breach
2018 was the year in which data breaches in mergers and acquisitions became the iceberg in full view. This fuller realization of cyber risk in transactions, though, actually has its origin in September 2016 – when Yahoo and Marriott were in the midst of deals that would involve some of the largest data breaches on record.
Continue Reading
A relatively quiet year for HIPAA enforcement is ending with a small flourish. The Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced two settlements with covered entities within the span of eight days.
The first settlement involved Advanced Care Hospitalists (ACH), a company that provides internal medicine physicians to hospitals and nursing homes in Florida. In 2014, ACH received notice from a local hospital that individually identifiable patient information had been posted on the website of a third party billing provider. ACH reported the breach, which ultimately led to an HHS investigation. HHS found that:
To settle these matters, ACH agreed to pay a $500,000 penalty and fulfill its obligations under a supervised corrective action plan that focuses on the identified failures.
The second settlement followed from a complaint lodged with HHS against Pagosa Springs Medical Center (PSMC) in Colorado. The ensuing investigation revealed:
On November 21, 2018, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court drastically changed the data breach litigation landscape by holding that an employer has a common law duty to use reasonable care to safeguard employees’ personal information stored on an Internet-accessible computer. The Court further held that Pennsylvania’s economic loss doctrine permits recovery for “purely pecuniary damages” on a negligence claim premised on a breach of such a duty.
Continue Reading
On April 18, 2018, the Government of Canada published the final regulations relating to mandatory reporting of privacy breaches under Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”). To date, most organizations under PIPEDA’s purview have not been subject to mandatory privacy breach notification requirements. While organizations in the United States are familiar with breach notification statutes, organizations both within and outside of Canada will need to pay careful attention to the new requirements imposed under PIPEDA and assess any changes that need to be made to ensure compliance when the final regulations go into effect on November 1, 2018.
Continue Reading
A new bill introduced by House Financial Services subcommittee Chairman Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer would significantly change data security and breach notification standards for the financial services and insurance industries. Most notably, the proposed legislation would create a national standard for data security and breach notification and preempt all current state law on the matter.
Continue Reading
We’ve previously blogged about the creative efforts of plaintiffs’ counsel to expand the contours of data breach litigation. Thus far those results have had mixed results, as courts continue to dismiss data breach litigation on Article III standing grounds – although less frequently in the case of breaches involving malicious activity. A recent ruling from the Southern District of Illinois however may have blown open a new, potentially wide front in breach litigation.
Continue Reading
Imagine a breach in the privacy of protected health information. The violation of an individual’s HIPAA rights may be clear, but the individual cannot sue under HIPAA. Courts have consistently held that HIPAA provides no private right of action.
In the recent case of Lee-Thomas v. Lab Corp., an individual brought suit, claiming that her HIPAA rights had been violated. When hospitalized, she had been asked to submit medical information on a computer. She alleged that the information she entered was visible to another patient at a nearby computer station. The court did not reach the question of whether the proximity of the computers resulted in a HIPAA violation. It dismissed the claim, observing that HIPAA limits enforcement actions to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and states’ attorneys general.
The absence of a private right of action under HIPAA significantly reduces the risks faced by covered entities and business associates, but it does not shield them against all litigation and liability. Lawsuits for the improper disclosure of personal medical information have been brought under different theories, including common law breaches of privacy and breaches of contract. Last year, Anthem Inc. settled a class action, arising from a large 2015 data breach, for $115 million. Currently, litigation is being pursued under non-HIPAA claims for disclosures that have resulted from mailing practices, including the use of window envelopes and incorrect addresses. Case law is emerging, and it is possible that courts will refer to HIPAA’s standards as setting the bar for the privacy and data security safeguards that should be implemented and followed, but individuals who sue for breaches of those safeguards will need to base their claims on something other than a HIPAA violation.
Continue Reading
The Departmental Appeals Board of the Department of Health and Human Services (“Board”) has granted summary judgment against the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (“Center”) and upheld the imposition of $4.3 million dollars in penalties against the Center for violations of HIPAA’s privacy and security rules. In this case, the personal medical data of more than 33,000 individuals was exposed through the theft of a laptop and the loss of unencrypted thumb drives. None of these devices was encrypted, and the laptop was not password protected.
Continue Reading