Continuing its serious march against covered entities not allowing patients access to their records, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has settled two more cases in two days in its Right of Access Initiative. This brings the tally of OCR’s settlements to a total of 18. The 17th settlement, with The Arbour, Inc., d/b/a Arbour Hospital (Arbour,), was announced by the OCR on March 24, 2021. The settlement includes a payment of $65,000 and an…

State and local governments have been hammered with business email compromise (BEC) attacks over the past few years and the onslaught does not appear to be abating. Last week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a Private Industry Notification to state, local, tribal, and territorial governments that they are being targeted by BEC attackers. The FBI noted that it is seeing an increase in these attacks, which have caused losses ranging between $10,000 and…

Speaking of security education and training, the National Cybersecurity Center this week launched a new initiative to offer cyber-hygiene and IT security sessions to elected state government officials and their staff for FREE. The training sessions are getting a financial boost from Google and bipartisan support from Secretaries of State Frank LaRose (R-Ohio) and Jena Griswold (D-Colorado), who will be the program’s emissaries. The lessons will focus on basic cyber-hygiene, including multi-factor authentication, passwords, and…

The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure heard testimony from U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Pete Buttigieg this week on the Biden Administration’s priorities and plans for national transportation infrastructure. Although Secretary Buttigieg’s testimony did not provide details specifically about unmanned aerial systems (UAS or drones), Secretary Buttigieg comes to the DOT with a history of success in promoting autonomous systems, which will hopefully help lead the way for the industry on a federal level.…

Many people continue to be unaware of how their data are collected, stored, used, disclosed, retained, or destroyed. As technology explodes it is hard to stay current, and educating individuals on their privacy rights has diminished. There are many organizations devoted to educating consumers on their privacy rights and committed to teaching them about the risks and considerations for protecting their privacy. One such organization, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, continues to provide relevant and…

The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently completed and published a study on electricity grid cybersecurity that concluded that the Department of Energy (DOE) needs to ensure its plans fully address risks to electricity distribution systems. The GAO completed two prior studies of the generation and transmission functions of the electricity grid and found that they are increasingly vulnerable to cyber-attacks. The third function of the electricity grid is distribution, which was the subject…