Avant Resources Blog Low-tech data breaches

Healthcare provider Aetna has agreed to pay $17 million as settlement for a data breach that compromised the privacy of people taking preventative or diagnosed medication to treat HIV. A breach that could have easily been avoided with common vigilance. Here are a few tips:Healthcare provider Aetna has agreed to pay $17 million as settlement for a data breach that compromised the privacy of people taking preventative or diagnosed medication to treat HIV. A breach that could have easily been avoided. While unrelated, Aetna's settlement amount is about the same as the average entire cyber crime cost for a US company for 2016.Ironically the provider's data breach had nothing to do with cyber criminals. People could see the first three lines of the letter through the clear window of the envelope and gather that the addressee was taking HIV medication- seriously compromising privacy laws.The fact that data can be compromised in very low-tech ways was emphasized in a cyber security webinar conducted last week by attorney Robert Brownstone. "Companies invest heavily in IT software but forget to train their employees. Inadvertently harmful intentional disclosures are a big leakage risk," he said.Brownstone gave a few tips to avoid low-level data breaches:Loose lips - People not watching what they are sayingBlind copying people on emailsClicking 'reply all' on emailsBragging on social media Sock puppeting, a term used for online identities used for purposes of deception Cybersecurity Training