A recent data breach that exposed the Social Security numbers of more than 280,000 people served as yet another reminder of the well-recognized, but often discounted, risks associated with using weak and default passwords.

What has increased the adoption rate for compliance is the $20 billion of the Feds 2009 stimulus money that has been set aside for upgrading healthcare IT to support electronic medical records.

The director of the agency that enforces HIPAA "fully expects" the government to launch a permanent HIPAA compliance audit program once a pilot is completed in 2012. The pilot version of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act …