In the face of seemingly daily news reports of company data breaches and the mounting legislative concern and efforts on both the state and federal level to enact laws safeguarding personal information maintained by companies, employers should be questioning whether they should implement privacy policies to address the protection of personal information they maintain on … Continue Reading
In June, Connecticut’s governor signed into law Senate Bill 949 which amended the State’s breach notification statute. The requirement that covered businesses must provide one year of identity theft protection services for certain breaches, easily the most popular aspect of the legislation, may have diverted attention from some significant aspects of this new law. Senate Bill … Continue Reading
Senate Bill 949 is now law in Connecticut, after being signed by Governor Malloy on June 11. As we reported, this law amends the state’s current breach notification mandate to require that for breaches of certain personal information covered business must provide one year of free identity-theft protection for affected persons. So, beginning October 1, 2015, … Continue Reading
Following a string of states across the country that have strengthened their data breach notification laws in recent months, Connecticut is about to amend its law to require, among other things, that businesses provide one year of identity-theft protection for persons affected by the breach. Many businesses already extend such services to breach victims, but, … Continue Reading
Connecticut joins five other states (Hawaii, Illinois, Oregon, Washington, and Maryland) in limiting what credit report information employers may use in making hiring or employment decisions.… Continue Reading
A new law in New York (eff. April 1, 2011) and a flurry of bills across the country (New Jersey, Nevada, Florida, Connecticut and Oregon) are aimed at requiring businesses to deal with their electronic waste in one form or another. Before discarding that old laptop, businesses should make sure they do so securely and in accordance with applicable state law.… Continue Reading
What had been the first use of the enforcement authority under the HIPAA privacy regulations granted to a State Attorney General, has ended in a settlement agreement between Connecticut’s Insurance Department and Health Net of Connecticut. Under the agreement, Health Net will pay $375,000 in penalties, and it agreed to provide credit monitoring protection for 2 years to all affected persons in Connecticut and … Continue Reading
On August 18, 2010, the Connecticut Insurance Commissioner issued Bulletin IC-25 which mandates that entities within its jurisdiction notify the Department of Insurance of any "information security incident." This post provides a brief summary of this new requirement. Who must provide the notice? The Bulletin applies to all licensees and registrants of the Department. This generally means all entities … Continue Reading
Over the past few months, many businesses, particularly in the Northeast Region, have been focusing on creating a written information security program (WISP) to comply with Massachusetts identity theft regulations that went into effect March 1, 2010. For many, this has been a significant effort, reaching most, if not all, parts of their organizations. However, … Continue Reading
As we have discussed before, data breach notification is one of the most rapidly emerging areas of law. Good security incident procedures as well as effective training can help avoid the risk of data breach. (Sample data breach training). A case in point: Connecticut’s Attorney General has filed a civil action against Health Net of the Northeast … Continue Reading
Health Net Inc., one of the nation’s largest publicly traded managed health care companies, recently notified authorities and informed affected persons, with a statement on its website, that the unencrypted personal information of 1.5 million current and former members, stored on a portable disk drive, is missing from the company’s Connecticut office. The company is now … Continue Reading
In a key step toward developing a proposed U.S. health information technology (HIT) infrastructure, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has announced that Iowa’s Medicaid program is the first to receive federal matching funds for planning activities necessary to implement the electronic health record (EHR) incentive program established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment … Continue Reading
Today, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced his office will investigate a data breach that occurred in late August that affected approximately 18,817 Connecticut health care professionals. The American Medical Association reported earlier that this breach involved the personal information, including Social Security numbers, of an estimated 850,000 physicians nationwide. What is most troubling about this … Continue Reading
