HHS OCR breach portal (HIPAA breaches affecting 500 or more individuals) Primary notice
Posted on the HHS Office for Civil Rights breach portal with a submission date of Dec. 30, 2021.
- Organization as reported
- Virtual Private Network Solutions, LLC d/b/a VPN Solutions, LLC, VA
- Entity type as reported
- Business Associate
- Category as reported
Hacking/IT Incident
- Location of information as reported
- Network Server
- Submission date
- Dec. 30, 2021
- Observed by BreachRecords
- 2026-10-18 16:15 UTC (revision 11694, row:2833)
- Archived copy
- Held in the private archive (provenance)
Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a $90,000 settlement with Virtual Private Network Solutions, LLC (VPN Solutions), a Virginia business associate that provides data hosting and cloud services to covered entities (health plans, health care clearinghouses, and most health care providers) and business associates, for a potential violation under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Security Rule. OCR enforces the HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules, which set forth the requirements that covered entities (health plans, health care clearinghouses, and most health care providers), and business associates must follow to protect the privacy and security of protected health information (PHI). Ransomware and hacking are the primary cyberthreats in health care. Ransomware is a type of malware (malicious software) designed to deny access to a user’s data, usually by encrypting the data with a key known only to the hacker who deployed the malware, until a ransom is paid. Since 2018, there has been a 264% increase in large breaches reported to OCR involving ransomware attacks. The settlement also marks the third enforcement action in OCR's Risk Analysis Initiative. This enforcement initiative was created to focus select investigations on compliance with the HIPAA Security Rule Risk Analysis provision, a key Security Rule requirement, and the foundation for effective cybersecurity and the protection of ePHI; to increase the number of completed investigations; and to highlight the need for more attention and better compliance with this Security Rule requirement. In December of 2021, OCR received a breach report concerning a ransomware incident that impacted portions of the VPN Solutions server infrastructure. VPN Solutions filed the breach report on behalf of twelve covered entities, which had delegated their responsibility to report the breach to VPN…