On October 25, 2024, the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (OCR) published its October 2024 Cybersecurity Newsletter. The Newsletter provides valuable information on how to minimize cyber threats from “social engineering”, which is defined…
In February 2024, the Change Healthcare cyberattack crippled healthcare and billing information operations nationwide. Investigations into the cyberattack have revealed evidence that the hack started when cybercriminals entered a server that lacked a basic form of security: multifactor authentication. Being…
The Security Rule under the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires dental providers, as HIPAA-covered entities, to adopt adequate means for safeguarding the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic protected health information (ePHI). One of these safeguards…
Under the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s (HIPAA’s) Security Rule, covered entities, including most dental offices, are required to adopt adequate means for safeguarding the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of PHI. This includes conducting a security risk analysis…
On June 14, 2022, the US Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and the US Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) jointly announced an update to the Security Risk Assessment…
On March 28, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced four new enforcement actions against healthcare providers for violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule. Three of…
According to the ADA News, Athens Orthopedic Clinic in Georgia recently settled with the US Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) for potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The settlement consisted…
Lately, we have been hearing more and more reports about cyberattacks affecting businesses of all sizes nationwide. This past summer, over 400 dental practices were affected by a ransomware cyberattack from a third party data company. Then, most recently, the American Dental Association…
On October 30, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology posted a blog about how to effectively use its free online security risk assessment tool for security of…
In late August, over 400 dental practices were affected in a ransomware cyberattack against DDS Safe, a service from The Digital Dental Record that facilitates secure data backups for dental practice computer systems. Unfortunately, scenarios like this are becoming all too…
