If you are among the many people turning to video-teleconferencing (VTC) to stay connected during the COVID-19 pandemic, you need to protect yourself from “Zoom-bombing” – the entrance of uninvited individuals into your VTC. The FBI has received multiple reports of conferences being disrupted by offensive images and/or threatening language.
The FBI recommends the following steps to mitigate VTC hijacking threats:
Christopher Hart, Co-Chair of Foley Hoag’s Privacy and Data Security practice, discusses the data security risks of the present crisis and how to mitigate them in MassTLC’s Virtual Table Top Panel. Click here to listen to the full audio of the program. More
On March 24, 2020, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the Department of Health and Human Services 
issued guidance on how HIPAA covered entities may disclose protected health information (PHI) about an individual who has been infected with or exposed to COVID-19 to law enforcement, paramedics, other first responders, and public health authorities in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule.… More
Colin Zick, Co-Chair of Foley Hoag’s COVID-19 Task Force, recently appeared on the WGBH news program 
In It Together, where he spoke with Arun Rath about the steps companies and individuals can take to protect their sensitive data in an era of remote working and telehealth. Click here to listen to a full recording of the program. More
On Friday, March 20, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Se
rvices Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced it will “exercise its enforcement discretion and will not impose penalties for noncompliance with the regulatory requirements under the HIPAA Rules against covered health care providers in connection with the good faith provision of telehealth during the COVID-19 nationwide public health emergency. This notification is effective immediately.”… More
On March 19, 2020, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued its Memorandum on Identification of Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers During COVID-19 Response (“Memo”). The Memo identifies workers who conduct “a range of operations and services that are essential to continued critical infrastructure viability” and who support a wide-spectrum of industries such as medical and healthcare, telecommunications, information technology systems, defense, and energy.
As provided by the Homeland Security Act of 2002,… More
The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) just completed a stakeholder security briefing. This was recorded and should soon be available on the CISA website, but in the interim, some key takeaways are:
The coronavirus and Covid-19 are impacting everything and everyone, and certainly health information privacy. Here is a useful summary of health information issues to be mindful of from HHS OCR on HIPAA privacy and the coronavirus/Covid-19. Topics covered in the bulletin include:
For more information on HIPAA and Public Health,… More
Companies that have already done the work to become GDPR-compliant are a step ahead, but all companies that collect California users’ personal information or just do business in California should check to see whether they are obligated to comply with the CCPA. Foley Hoag’s Privacy & Data Security practice group has more than a decade of experience and deep knowledge in domestic and international privacy law. Our CCPA team, with lawyers admitted to practice in California,… More