The California Department of Public Health has announced that five hospitals have been fined a total of $675,000 for failing to protect patient data.

"CDPH assessed the penalties under new California legislation intended to protect the confidentiality of medical records," writes DarkReading's Tim Wilson.

"Under the law, an administrative penalty of $25,000 may be assessed against a medical facility for the breach of each patient’s medical information," Wilson writes. "A penalty of up to $17,500 is added for each subsequent breach of each patient’s medical information."

Click here to read the DarkReading article.