Chicago’s health providers are prime targets for opportunistic hackers; Cook County Health is the most recently discovered victim of a cyber assault. Assailants took advantage of a third-party medical transcription service Perry Johnson & Associates, Inc. (PJ&A) provided. The attack targeted PJ&A’s systems, resulting in the exposure of numerous patient records. If hackers accessed your information during the breach, there’s still time to protect yourself.

Fairfax Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery serves the residents of Northern Virginia and the surrounding region. They employ a ten-person surgery team with six locations. Fairfax has been the target of a data breach, creating over 235,000 potential victims; your information may be at risk if you’ve been a patient of an associated facility.

In mid-August, state officials in Connecticut began receiving worrisome complaints from constituents about a potentially dire situation unfolding at local hospitals. One such message, from a woman on Facebook, relayed a desperate plea for help on behalf of her 71-year-old father, who, she claimed, had spent the last two days on a gurney in an emergency room hallway.

The phrase “digital transformation” gets thrown around a lot these days when discussing IT infrastructure. A popular — albeit slightly vague — buzzphrase for a reason, digital transformation, in this context, simply refers to the idea that businesses are working to modernize their operations and leverage the power of new technologies.

The healthcare industry has rapidly embraced digital technologies to enhance patient care, streamline operations, and improve communication. However, this digital transformation brings with it a significant challenge: protecting patient data. One often overlooked risk comes from tracking pixels, which can lead to (accidental) data leakage and privacy breaches.

Healthcare and technology have always gone hand in hand. Telemedicine, which lets you talk to doctors without visiting them in person, is a great example. A few years back, it might have sounded like science fiction. But today, it's a regular part of many people's lives. In fact, data shows that 80% of people have used telemedical services at least once in their lives.

The massive uptick in business email compromise (BEC) is considered one of the costliest attack types, requiring organizations to put employees on notice to stay vigilant. The latest research from the FBI puts the average cost of BEC attacks at around $125,000. What makes them so dangerous is that they largely rely on text-only emails using social engineering to trick those with finance responsibilities into parting with the money they control.

This year for the 13th year in a row, the healthcare industry continues to experience the most expensive data breaches worldwide, at an average cost of nearly $11 million – double the cost for the next-highest industry, finance. That’s not surprising; ransomware attacks on hospitals and health systems are constantly in the news. Add to that the cybersecurity talent shortage, which is especially acute (pardon the pun) in the healthcare industry.

Community First Medical Center (CFMC) is a medical and nursing facility that serves Chicagoland and Illinois broadly. They employ over 300 individuals who preside over a 299-bed hospital campus. Originally named Our Lady of the Resurrection Hospital, CFMC provides community-focused healthcare, diagnostics, and treatments. If you have received services from CFMC, your private information might have been stolen in a recent data breach.

HCA Healthcare is a national and international healthcare service provider. Their services span over 180 hospitals and thousands of clinics across 20 states. They also offer services in the United Kingdom called HCA UK. Around the world, more than 290,000 people work for HCA; their payrolls include the staff of surgery and urgent care centers, imaging and physician clinics, and more. Back in July, HCA Healthcare suffered a hack exposing the data of more than 11 million Americans.