Help Me With HIPAA

Recently we talked with Gary Salman, CEO of Black Talon Security. Our discussion was lively and full of great stories and tips. There was so much there we decided to break this into two episodes. This is part 1 and next week we will share part 2. Let's get started on cybersecurity tales! More at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/270

After teaching our 3-day HIPAA Boot Camp we were pretty exhausted. In this episode we are discussing the interesting things David found when reading articles about cybersecurity myths. More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/269

Today we are going to cover what we expected to see start happening after the rush to convert us all to work from home. The discussions about our concern that no one was paying attention except the criminals is starting to come to fruition. More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/268

Everywhere we turn this year we are dealing with chaos and stress. Can we all just sing Kumbaya and make it go away? If it was only that easy. Just because craziness has happened doesn't mean HIPAA goes out the window. As we all try to navigate the unknown we can not forget that the criminals thrive on chaos like this. If you aren't protecting your information a data breach becomes almost inevitable. It is important to understand the data breach costs you are looking at when one occurs. More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/267

These new settlements from OCR should be new required reading. There is very little guessing about their expectations in these CAPs. Specifically mentioning encryption requirements and mobile device management is not ambiguous at all. Things are getting real folks! More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/266

There are plenty of things happening that you should be aware of including a new settlement announcement from OCR. This and more things happening out there you should know about! More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/265

So happy that we are finally doing this show in time to remind you to use the free security awareness training resources available for October which is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM). There are a lot of free resources available to promote security awareness under that program released each year. Today we are discussing how to use these resources to work out a plan for your training through out October! More at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/264

The threat of ransomware continues to be a major issue for all businesses. MSPs were a gateway for mass cyber attacks in 2019. Make sure your IT provider is using the new guide specifically for them produced by NIST and NCCoE: PROTECTING DATA FROM RANSOMWARE AND OTHER DATA LOSS EVENTS. While we are at it there are a couple of articles relating to ransomware's impact on insurance coverage that we need to bring to your attention. More at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/263

The annual Verizon data breach report was recently released for 2020. Learning from other's mistakes is always the best way to learn vs the alternatives. These reports always offer very specific details that we find very enlightening and helpful in making business decisions relating to security in all businesses. More at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/262

COVID-19 Testing vs HIPAA is starting to play out all over the country as businesses reopen and the virus continues to spread. Today we will discuss some of the confusion about all the COVID-19 testing and HIPAA. More at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/261

So far 2020 has the whole world turned upside down. A true global pandemic, global economic fallout still happening from a shutdown caused by the pandemic and a level of global social unrest that hasn't been seen in 40-50 years. Yes, it is overwhelming. But, it is also very clear that the criminal factors and nation-state attackers are well aware no one is watching the hen house too. More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/260

Too often our human selves will happily put off some responsibilities on others if we can find any small reason for doing so. It may not be our best quality but it is certainly one that bonds most of us together. I personally can't name anyone that would say sorry I would like to take responsibility for something I think is your responsibility. In our world today we all need to take responsibility for helping protect the group as a whole. The NICE team from NIST published something about just that when it comes to cybersecurity. Time to get ready to discuss it is everyone's responsibility, not just a select few. More at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/259

If you are a fan of horror flicks you know the story. Even if you are not a fan you probably know the line from When A Stranger Calls: "the calls are coming from a phone inside the house". That stuff happens in the opening. Personally, I have never made it through that part much less through the whole thing. Today we have a whole new horror flick to discuss: cyberattacks coming from inside the network. Maybe we should hold this until Halloween but who knows what will happen then, we need to cover this because it is happening now. More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/258

Perfect timing rarely happens these days but we have been discussing updating incident response plans based on what we have learned in the last two months. In fact, we ended our last episode saying the response plan update is one of the most important things you should do. Like magic Erik Decker posts on LinkedIn this week that the HIC group has finished a new guide specifically about crisis response. More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/257

We always know when serious stuff has happened behind the scenes and OCR got involved. Some major violations of privacy rights must have happened when we see the OCR notice reminding everyone that you can not share patient information with the media without authorization. More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/256

We mentioned in the last episode that we would put together a checklist of sorts for what to do as everyone switches back to the old way of doing business or sets up under new remote models. While this isn't exactly a copy and paste checklist it does give you food for thought as to what to consider for your own reboot checklist. More at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/255

When can we stop talking about ransomware? Apparently, never. One of the things we can list as part of our "new normal" is new ways ransomware is going to be impacting us differently. Things are worse today than when we discussed ransomware just a couple of months ago. The pandemic has opened up so many ways for the criminals to attack they are having a field day. More at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/254

Like it or not we have to face new realities on our threat lists as we figure out our new normal in the post COVID-19 landscape. The privacy and security risks have changed just like everything else during the crisis. Threat lists used for your SRA must be updated and addressed. You do not want to be hit with data breaches and privacy breaches just as you get things back up and running, do you? More at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/253

Before things went all COVID on us this episode was planned out. It may be even more worthy of an episode now. Have you been evaluating your MSPs response to your current state of business? We knew there were some MSP issues in 2019 but now, in 2020, you must have a reliable trusted MSP partner more than ever. What kinds of things do you need to know about your tech needs, your MSP and where you both plan for the future? More at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/252

So many scams and so little time to keep up with them. Yes, that is what it feels like these days. There are so many coronavirus scams we have to take some time to update you guys. There have been cybercrime alerts and stupid people stories galore. Here are the coronavirus scams and crimes we have on our radar this week. More at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/251

With the national crisis still in play, cybersecurity is essential to operating businesses which are now online more than ever before. Small businesses without any apps before are going online to survive. Telehealth, remote learning, telework are all standard right now. With so much going on we are trying to keep our eye on cyber stories to prepare ourselves and our clients for what is happening out there. Today let's discuss 3 cyber stories we are watching right now. More at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/250

There is a lot of confusion along the way as there always will be in a crisis like this one. We are going to share some of the good information and do our best to clear up some of the misinformation. No matter what, though, it could all change in the two short weeks between when we record this and when we publish it for you guys. Our plan is to provide as much solid information that we know to be true and accurate today. More at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/249

We are all doing our best to focus on what we can do during this national crisis. It is certain that we will bounce back at some point and be able to get back to business. When we do this national reboot, what kinds of things will we need to do? Spend time now planning for the coming business reboot. More at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/248

In Oct 2019 another document was released by the Health Sector Coordinating Council Joint Cybersecurity Working Group. Health Industry Cybersecurity Supply Chain Risk Management Guide or HIC SCRiM for short is aimed at helping small and medium sized healthcare organizations manage their supply chain vendors. If you haven't had a chance to check it out, we are reviewing it for you today. If you do review it you will see why we think that HIC SCRiM should wake up vendors. More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/247

Opening the 2020 enforcement list for OCR is a doctor's office who reported a breach due to a business associate issue and then did nothing. The settlement wasn't due to the BA but because the office had no SRA in place. Let's break down the settlement with Steven A. Porter, M.D., P.C. a sole gastroenterologist practice in Ogden, UT. Time to learn from their mistakes. More at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/246

Does your SRA include something like COVID-19? Your business continuity plans include it? Do you need an SRA that includes virus outbreaks? Yes, you do. If your risk analysis didn't include these kinds of things you should revisit your method for doing an SRA. What should you do about this risk and what else is missing from your SRA? Let's talk about privacy, security and COVID-19. More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/245

Cybersecurity misconceptions are pretty common both in personal life and business. There are definitely enough cases of misinformation coming through our offices on a regular basis to make it obvious just how confused people can be about what should be done. We have pointed out many times that the government has been releasing information for years to assist both businesses and individuals. You can find a lot of information that is very helpful at StaySafeOnline.org. Today we are going to discuss one directed at SMBs explaining several cybersecurity misconceptions. More at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/244

This story has been going around since September 2019. Images exposed on the internet from PACS systems around the world available to anyone that wanted to see them. Images exposed included x-rays, MRI scans and more. It still hasn't been locked down after all these months. That means it's time to talk about it instead of keeping it quiet. More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/243

Another report comes out that says insiders are a huge problem. You have to worry about the people, people. We have been saying this for years. The lastest news on that front is in the 2020 Cost Of Insider Threats Global Report released by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by ObserveIT and IBM. It does tell us a lot of things we already knew but the details including those about how it is growing are important to note. More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/242

Wearables, medical devices and HIPAA are just some of the questions we have gotten recently. Today's episode is privacy and security news plus listener questions. More at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/241

Is HIPAA ambiguous? That is the way many people refer to anything that has to do with HIPAA regulations. It comes from doctors, nurses, lawyers, managers, supervisors, even compliance officers. But, is it really the way we should refer to the law? Should we say it is flexible or reasonable instead? More at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/240

There have been a lot of headlines lately about Windows 7 end of life and Windows 10 security patches. Let's discuss why supported software and security patching matters in general. Then, we can talk about why it matters under HIPAA. More at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/239

We have mentioned ransomware warnings over and over on HMWH. To the point ransomware shows up in a search on 56 different episodes before this one. That means we've talked about ransomware warnings in 24% of our episodes. Guess what - clearly we need to talk about it again! More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/238

As we anticipated there was one more OCR settlement announcement before the end of 2019. This one popped in at the end of December and was yet another one in our backyard. The ambulance company settlement seemed simple at first but once we read the details there is a lot to unpack in the CAP. Let's get to it then! More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/237

We need to get on the record with our 2020 predictions even if we both agree we have no freaking idea what is going to happen in 2020. If anyone out there says they honestly believe they have a true beat on it, check them out. We do have a few 2020 predictions that we feel sure enough about to say it outloud to you guys. More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/236

Here we go with two more OCR enforcement settlements. As we expected, the end of the year included a flurry of enforcement announcements from OCR. Just as this was about to be recorded they announced the second patient access settlement. So we can we get both done in one episode! Both of these cases are related to some costly PHI mistakes so let's get down to business. More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/235

We have made it most of the way through 2019. Now is the time to see how we did when we released our HIPAA privacy and security predictions for 2019 in episode 186 way back on Jan 11. There were so many things that transpired this year just when thinking about the threat landscape much less all of our HIPAA discussions it feels long ago in a galaxy far, far away. For more info HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/234

Enjoy Bojan's 2019 version of our annual blooper show. Yes, some things really are as crazy behind the scenes as it seems. Thanks for all your support in 2019. Enjoy whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year to the fullest!

A Business Associate Agreement isn't just another simple bit of paperwork. The liability commitments in your BAA and the business relationship it defines are very serious and very important in defining clearly the responsibilities of both parties. Lately, we have had to ask a lot of questions like what is in your BAA and today we discuss what we have been seeing out there in the wild, so to speak. More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/233

OCR has been busy closing out investigations lately. They announced 2 more enforcement actions in early November. One was a settlement in NY, but the other was a civil money penalty with Texas HHSC. Let's review these 2 new OCR enforcement actions to see what we need to learn from the details released. More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/232

Happy Thanksgiving from the HMWH team. Since we just talked with Erik Decker the last two weeks about HICP it seemed fitting that our Thanksgiving replay this year is the discussion we had about our initial review of HICP earlier in 2019. That was episode 189. Thanks for listening and enjoy the Holiday season!

Today we share part 2 of our Erik Decker HICP discussion. Learn about more tools for small and medium organizations. The 405(d) Task Group has more work to do so learn ways you can help spread the word about using these tools to improve healthcare cybersecurity. We even ask how we can all help promote cybersecurity awareness and HICP to improve the healthcare cybersecurity. HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/231

We covered the release of HICP or Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices: Managing Threats and Protecting Patients back in Feb in the episode we called 5 Threats and 10 Protection Practices – Ep 189. HICP has now been out for a bit and the next phases of the project are in process. Today we discuss all things HICP with Erik Decker who is the Health Sector Coordinating Council Co-Lead of the 405(d) Task Group that developed this tool to help our sector follow solid cybersecurity practices. More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/230

HIPAA penalties are always discussed in training and presentations about HIPAA. Those discussions are usually more about an overview of what is in the law than actual information on how the law is applied. HIPAA penalties are really not seen often. Civil money penalties are not part of the settlements we usually see but OCR announced a big one in October. How do they really apply those huge numbers everyone talks about but we never see? More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/229

The annual conference hosted by NIST and OCR Safeguarding Health Information: Building Assurance through HIPAA Security and the repeated message on day one of the conference was "HIPAA is the floor" which started with OCR Dir Severino's keynote. We always get information at some point that makes these conferences worth the time. What did we get from this one? More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/228

As is our custom, each year we have a halloween-themed episode. This year we are thrilled to bring you several very real Tales From The Dark Side Of HIPAA. Thanks to our friend, Jack Rhysider from DarkNet Diaries for recording our haunting lead-in! More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/227

Social media and PHI get the OCR spotlight in the latest settlement announced. Reading these settlement agreements provide the best guidance from OCR which is why we always take the time to get those details for you. How much have you considered about your social media policies and how your staff understands their responsibilities? More info at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/226

Is there such a thing as bad luck breaches? Most of us don't expect luck to rule our world although I will always take good luck if I can get it. But when bad things happen sometimes we say it is due to a string of bad luck. Can data breaches be due to one of those strings of bad luck? For more info go to HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/225

The first patient access settlement has been announced by OCR. Director Severino mentioned they would be putting an emphasis on this issue and we now have the first enforcement come through. What should you learn from this settlement? It included some interesting corrective action requirements. More HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/224

January 14, 2020 marks the end of life for Windows 7 and Windows 2008 operating systems. Have you done your SRA to make sure you have things covered? What about home computers, should you be worried about those? In this episode we review what this end of life for Windows OS means and what you should be doing in the 4th quarter of 2019 to prepare for it. More at HelpMeWithHIPAA.com/223