The trend toward increasingly large health information breach settlements has continued with yesterday’s announcement thatBlue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee (BCBST) has agreed to pay the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) $1,500,000 to settle potential violations of HIPAA’s Privacy and Security Rules, HHS’s Office of Civil Rights. BCBST also agreed to a corrective action plan to address gaps in its HIPAA compliance program.… More
Tag Archives: Social Security Numbers
RECAP Joins The Fight Against PACER — But Do We Want Its Help?
It just became a little cheaper and a little easier to access public court filings through PACER (the Public Access to Court Electronic Records), thanks to RECAP, an open-source Firefox plug-in designed to create a free secondary archive of PACER materials.
Court filings contained in PACER are public documents, and are, in theory, open to the public. But, in the past, the fact that these materials were either maintained in individual courthouses or,… More
Electronic Access to Court Filings Potentially Exposing Sensitive, Personal Information
In an April 2009 press release (.pdf), the Public Access to Court Electronic Records system (“PACER") announced that 99% of all federal courts nationwide have implemented electronic systems allowing litigants to file and review documents online. The near-complete implementation of these online systems marks an important technological and environmental milestone for the legal profession; however, it comes with considerable risks to individuals’ privacy and security: potentially limitless filings that inadvertently contain individuals’… More
Senator Feinstein Introduces Two New Security/Privacy Bills
On January 6, 2009, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Cal.) introduced two bills related to data breaches and protection of social security numbers. Bill S. 139, entitled the "Data Breach Notification Act," would require any federal agency or business entity to notify an individual of a security breach involving personal information “without unreasonable delay.” The proposed bill defines “reasonable delay” as including “any time necessary to determine the scope of the security breach,… More
FTC Issues Guidance to Businesses on How To Handle Social Security Numbers
Anyone mystified by what practices the FTC wants businesses to improve on or abandon in response to federal “Red Flags” regulations received some specific guidance in December, when the FTC released the report Security in Numbers – SSNs and ID Theft. For anyone subject to new federal and state identity theft regulations, the Report helps identify some specific steps they should consider implementing by May 1, 2009, the deadline for businesses to adopt compliant identity theft prevention programs.