Institute on Aging

On July 20, 2018, the covered entity (CE), Institute on Aging, in San Francisco, California, reported that phishing attacks compromised several workforce members' email accounts. The compromised email folders contained 3,907 patient’s protected health information (PHI), including demographic, clinical, and payment information. The CE provided breach notification to HHS, affected individuals, and the media and provided individuals with identity protection services. In response to the breach, the CE hired a security company to perform forensic investigation of the incident, added an advanced threat protection tool to prevent future occurrences of similar incidents, and retrained workforce members. The CE also provided OCR with additional documentation including its HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices Policy, as relevant to this breach investigation. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions listed above.