HIMSS Analytics this past week released a study titled “Evaluating HITECH’s Impact on Healthcare Privacy and Security” that looks at healthcare providers and their business associates, relative to their awareness of the HITECH Act’s data breach provisions, as well as their experience with data breach incidents and concerns about preparedness and compliance with HITECH Act provisions.

This study, co-sponsored by ID Experts, the leader in identity breach protection, exposes some significant concerns.  It concludes that healthcare business associates, those organizations that provide services such as billing, credit bureaus, benefits management, legal services, claims processing, insurance brokers, data processing firms, pharmacy chains, accounting firms, temporary office personnel, and offshore transcription, are “unprepared for data breach”.

Further it notes that  “68 Percent of Provider Respondents Indicated that the HITECH Act’s Expanded Breach Notification Requirements will Result in More Discovery and Reporting of Incidents”.

This implies that healthcare organization are experiencing data breach incidents that in the past have either gone unrecognized or unreported. And that the new law is likely to “expose” more incidents because of the compliance requirements and the potentially large penalties for non-compliance.It also notes that a lack of preparedness and concern on the part of healthcare providers’ business associates creates a very significant risk to the privacy of their patients.

by Doug Pollack

The Santa Fe Group, an industry consortium, announced today an identity crime victims’ bill of rights that proposes the rights that should be provided to all individuals and recommending an approach to legislation for adopting this bill of rights.

“The five basic rights address the need for legislation that enables individual victims of identity theft to access and correct personally identifiable information (PII) records. The Bill of Rights white paper, titled Victims’ Rights: Fighting Identity Crime on the Front Lines, is now available at http://santa-fe-group.com/whitepapers/register.php.”

The Identity Crime Victims Bill of Rights advocates improved protection and support for victims and includes:

• Assessment of the nature and extent of the crime that removes the procedural ‘Catch-22s’ when validating identity
• Full restoration of victims’ identities to pre-theft status, including the ability to expunge records
• Freedom from harassment from collection agencies, law enforcement and others
• Prosecution of offenders and accountability for businesses that fail to reasonably secure personal information
• Restitution that includes repayment for financial losses and expenses

“The white paper effort was led by the Identity Management Working Group of The Santa Fe Group Vendor Council chaired by Rick Kam, President of ID Experts (www.idexpertscorp.com).

‘Despite new additions to the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act of 2003 (FACT), such as free credit reports and the ability to place fraud alerts after identity theft, victims are still subject to inconsistent and unfair treatment from state and federal agencies, law enforcement and businesses,’ said Rick Kam, President of Portland-based ID Experts, a leader in data breach prevention and remediation. ‘We created the Bill of Rights to empower victims by granting them the same rights as victims of other crimes.’”

The Santa Fe Group, ID Experts and other members of the Vendor Council will be holding meetings in Washington, DC later this spring in order to drum up support for this concept and related legislation.

Internet complaint boards have been busy and credit card fraud departments are scratching their heads. Thousands of customers across the country are reporting small (about 25 cents to 1 dollar) charges mysteriously appearing on their monthly statements. The Boston Globe carried the story here.

The charge shows up on statements as coming from “Adele Services” in Melville, N.Y. Of course, there is no business by that name in Melville, or anywhere in New York. According to The Boston Globe, “Two theories of what is going on have advanced on message boards and among consumer advocates: Someone is trying to find out whether an illegally obtained credit card number will work before making a bigger charge, or they’re trying to rip off tiny amounts from tons of people.”

So far, most reports indicate that no larger charges have appeared yet. However, the Better Business Bureau estimates the number of victims to be in the millions. It has not yet been determined how the card numbers became compromised. It has been mostly successful since most people are likely to overlook or ignore a small charge. As former Massachusetts assistant attorney general Edgar Dworsky, told The Boston Globe, “It’s easier to steal $1 from a million people than $1 million from one person.”

This is a great reminder of why it is important to examine your monthly statements closely, and to always question charges you do not recognize no matter how small. If you let it slide, that is exactly what they are hoping for. If you have one of these charges, call your financial institution and notify them of the disputed charge. Then file a complaint with the FTC (www.ftc.gov) and the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (www.ic3.gov). It is important to lodge a complaint, even if the charge is small, as a large number of similar complaints can launch a federal investigation.

by Doug Pollack

The Ponemon Institute today released a new study, sponsored by ID Experts, titled “Consumers Report Card on Data Breach Notification“. They describe the rationale and importance of this study as follows:

“It is well established that identity theft has become a very serious issue for Americans. But how well are organizations responding to consumers’ worries when their personal information is lost as the result of a data breach? We decided to conduct this study to find out if consumers who received notification about a data breach involving their personal information were satisfied with the organizations’ response and transparency. In other words, if the consumers had the ability to issue a report card on the current status of data breach notification would it be A for excellent or F for failing?”

The report provides a wealth of useful information to companies in order to effectively plan for a data breach response effort. Given an earlier Ponemon study estimate that around two-thirds of the $197 per person average cost of a data breach is in lost business and reputation, this report can assist companies in evaluating how elements of their data breach response effort can influence their customer retention rates and thereby attempt to reduce this very critical component of the cost equation.

Dr. Larry Ponemon states that:

“Data breach notifications are a failure if individuals do not have a clear understanding of their level of risk, available support, and the steps they need to take to respond to the loss of theft of their personal information. Our research strongly suggests that legal compliance is the primary goal of many companies’ notification efforts. This approach does not serve the best interests of consumers and contributes to a breakdown of trust that can impact a company monetarily as a result of increase in customer defection.”

To download a copy of this study, visit the ID Experts website and click on the New Ponemon Study link.