The Vice Society ransomware gang claims to have conducted a ransomware attack on the California healthcare provider United Health Centers of San Joaquin Valley. United Health Centers operates more than 20 community health centers in Fresno, Kings, and Tulare counties. The Vice Society ransomware gang emerged mid-2021 and is believed to be a spin-off of the… Read More »

Eastern Los Angeles Regional Center has discovered the email account of an employee has been accessed by an unauthorized individual. Suspicious activity was detected in the email account on July 15, 2021. A password reset was performed to prevent further unauthorized access and an investigation was launched to determine the nature and scope of the… Read More »

K and B Surgical Center in Beverley Hills, CA has discovered an unauthorized individual gained access to its computer network. The security breach was detected on March 30, 2021, with the third-party forensic investigation confirming its network was compromised between March 25 and March 30. Upon discovery of the breach, steps were taken to prevent… Read More »

A recent study conducted on more than 1,000 Americans has revealed one in three Americans have attempted to guess someone else’s password. Worryingly, in 73% of cases, that attempt to guess the password was successful. Unsurprisingly, survey participants were most interested in guessing the password of a romantic partner, which accounted for 43.7% of attempts… Read More »

Temperance, MI-based Family Medical Center of Michigan (FMC) has notified 21,988 patients about a July 2020 ransomware attack in which their protected health information was compromised. FMC said the attack appeared to have been conducted by a cybercriminal gang operating out of Ukraine. The attackers encrypted FMC’s financial files which prevented its employees from accessing… Read More »

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have issued a warning about escalating Conti ransomware attacks. CISA and the FBI have observed Conti ransomware being used in more than 400 cyberattacks in the United States and globally. Like many ransomware gangs, prior to deploying Conti ransomware the gang… Read More »

Healthcare organizations that are required to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) are facing challenges achieving compliance, according to a new study published in the Health Policy and Technology – DOI: 10.1016/j.hlpt.2021.100543 The CCPA was signed into law on June 28, 2018 and took effect on January 1, 2020. The aim of the… Read More »

The U.S. Vision Inc. subsidiary, USV Optical Inc. has announced unauthorized individuals have gained access to certain servers and systems that contained patients’ protected health information.  The unauthorized access was detected on May 12, 2021, with the subsequent forensic investigation confirming the hackers had access to its systems for almost a month from April 20,… Read More »

There was a 44% month-over-month decrease in the number of reported healthcare data breaches in August 2021. 38 healthcare data breaches of 500 or more records were reported by healthcare providers, health plans, and their business associates in August. August’s reported data breaches takes the total number of healthcare data breaches in the past 12… Read More »

Barlow Respiratory Hospital in Los Angeles, CA has announced it has suffered a ransomware attack on August 27, 2021. The attack was conducted by the Vice Society ransomware gang, which gained access to its network and electronic medical record system. Prior to using ransomware to encrypt files, the gang exfiltrated patient data, some of which… Read More »