Penalty Amount
$4,500,000
Consumers Affected
2,400,000
New York Attorney General Letitia James, along with the Attorneys General of Connecticut and New Jersey, settled with Enzo Biochem, Inc. for $4.5 million over a 2023 ransomware attack that exposed health and personal data of 2.4 million patients, including 1.4 million New York residents. The investigation found Enzo had inadequate data security practices, including shared employee login credentials, lack of multi-factor authentication, no suspicious activity monitoring, and unencrypted personal information. As part of the settlement, Enzo will pay the penalty and implement enhanced cybersecurity measures including MFA, encryption, risk assessments, and an incident response plan.
Enzo must pay a total $4.5 million penalty, with $2.8 million allocated to New York and the remainder to Connecticut and New Jersey. Enzo is required to implement and maintain a comprehensive information security program including: access controls for personal information, multi-factor authentication for all user accounts, strong password policies with regular rotation, encryption of all personal information at rest and in transit, annual documented risk assessments, and a comprehensive incident response plan.
In-house legal teams should review all vendor agreements with healthcare and biotechnology service providers, particularly those handling personal or health information, to ensure they include mandatory multi-factor authentication, data encryption (both at rest and in transit), and robust access controls. Contracts should require vendors to conduct annual risk assessments, maintain comprehensive information security programs, and have documented incident response plans. Additionally, agreements should mandate strong password policies with regular rotation, and specify breach notification timelines and requirements. For vendors handling health data, ensure compliance with applicable health data security standards is explicitly required.
Entity
Enzo Biochem, Inc.
Also known as: Enzo Biochem
Industry
HealthcareOfficial Press Release
https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2024/attorney-general-james-secures-45-million-biotech-company-failing-protect-new
enzo biochem aod 2024
https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/settlements-agreements/enzo-biochem-aod-2024.pdf
New York Attorney General Enforcement Page
https://ag.ny.gov/press-releases
"Enzo Biochem, Inc. (Enzo)"
"Enzo has agreed to pay a $4.5 million penalty"
"August 13, 2024"
"New York Attorney General Letitia James"
"As a result of today’s agreement, Enzo has agreed to pay a $4.5 million penalty"
"the OAG found that Enzo had poor data security practices, which led to a ransomware attack that compromised the personal and private information of approximately 2.4 million patients"
$4.5M
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, along with New York and New Jersey attorneys general, secured a $4.5 million settlement from Enzo Biochem, Inc. for failing to protect patient health data, resulting in a ransomware attack that compromised 2.4 million patients' information. Enzo must pay the fine and implement enhanced cybersecurity measures including multi-factor authentication and annual risk assessments.
$4.5M
Enzo Biochem, Inc. agreed to pay $4.5 million and strengthen its cybersecurity practices to settle allegations that deficient data security led to a ransomware attack exposing the health data of 2.4 million patients. The multistate enforcement action was led by New Jersey with New York and Connecticut.
$240K
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$240K
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