VA remains one of top privacy offenders

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/va-remains-one-top-privacy-offenders

By Erin McCann
Associate Editor
Health IT News
October 14, 2013

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs continues to be one of the biggest 
offenders of HIPAA privacy and security rules and has reported egregious 
breaches in recent years, affecting millions of veterans and active 
service members.

 From 2010 through May 2013, VA department employees or contractors were 
responsible for 14,215 privacy breaches affecting more than 101,000 
veterans across 167 VA facilities, including incidences of identity theft, 
stealing veteran prescriptions, Facebook posts concerning veterans' body 
parts, and failing to encrypt data, a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 
investigation revealed.

Recent VA privacy and security violations prompted a June 2013 hearing on 
Capitol Hill regarding the topic of protecting veterans' private 
information. "VA places the highest priority in safeguarding Veterans’ and 
employees’ personal information," Stephen W. Warren, acting assistant 
secretary at the Office of Information and Technology at VA, told 
lawmakers at the hearing.

However, some say the agency doesn't appear to have the privacy track 
record to support those comments.

[...]

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