Penalty Amount
$350,000
Consumers Affected
316,845
New York Attorney General Letitia James secured a $350,000 settlement from Personal Touch Holding Corporation for failing to protect patient and employee data. A ransomware attack in January 2021 compromised the personal and medical information of approximately 316,845 New Yorkers due to inadequate security measures. As part of the agreement, Personal Touch must pay penalties, enhance its cybersecurity program, and provide free credit monitoring to affected individuals.
Personal Touch must pay $350,000 in penalties, offer free credit monitoring and identity theft services to affected individuals, and implement a comprehensive information security program including encryption, access controls, employee training, and vendor management procedures.
In-house legal teams should review all agreements involving the handling of sensitive personal or health information, particularly vendor contracts, business associate agreements (BAAs), and data processing addendums. Specific clauses to scrutinize include data security standards (requiring encryption, access controls, and MFA), incident response and breach notification obligations (including timelines and reporting requirements), audit rights for security compliance, and subprocessor management. Given the ransomware attack via a phishing email, contracts must also mandate security awareness training for the vendor's personnel. Changes may be needed to strengthen security obligations, require regular vulnerability assessments and penetration testing, mandate immediate notification of security incidents, and ensure contractual rights to audit or require certification of compliance with frameworks like HIPAA Security Rule. For healthcare data, all BAAs must explicitly incorporate HIPAA Security Rule requirements and hold vendors liable for failures leading to breaches.
Entity
Personal Touch Holding Corporation
Also known as: Personal Touch
Industry
HealthcareOfficial Press Release
https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2023/attorney-general-james-secures-350000-long-island-home-health-care-company
personal touch aod
https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/settlements-agreements/personal-touch-aod.pdf
New York Attorney General Enforcement Page
https://ag.ny.gov/press-releases
"Personal Touch Holding Corporation"
"pay $350,000 in penalties"
"Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)"
"failing to protect vulnerable New Yorkers’ personal information and health care data"
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