Nearly 300k Heart Patients’ Data Exposed

The protected well being information and facts (PHI) of hundreds of hundreds of heart patients could have been exposed all through a cyber-attack on South Denver Cardiology Associates (SDCA).

In a latest privacy incident notice issued to its individuals, the healthcare supplier disclosed that its network experienced been breached in January 2022. The unfamiliar perpetrator(s) received obtain to information that contains data on 287,652 patients for the duration of the attack.

SDCA claimed: “On January 4 2022, we recognized unconventional exercise inside of our personal computer network. We right away initiated our incident reaction approach, which involved getting methods to protected the network and shutting off pick out laptop methods. 

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“We also began an investigation with the guidance of a laptop forensic agency and notified regulation enforcement.”

Investigators established that the data files accessed in the attack contained patient info, which might have bundled patients’ names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and/or drivers’ license numbers, patient account figures, well being insurance facts and medical info, this kind of as medical professional names, dates and types of services and diagnoses.

SDCA explained that the attack experienced not impacted the contents of individual health care documents. The healthcare service provider also explained that the security incident did not involve unauthorized accessibility to the affected person portal. 

“We have no indicator that individuals’ info has been misused as a final result of this incident,” mentioned SDCA, “However, as a precaution, on March 4 2022, we began mailing letters to our sufferers, which incorporate direction on how sufferers can safeguard their facts, as effectively as facts on an offer you of complimentary credit checking and identification safety solutions.”

James McQuiggan, a security awareness advocate at KnowBe4, commented: “Healthcare organizations are a key target for felony teams mainly because of sensitive own info kept in their programs,”

McQuiggan recommended all companies, which includes health care companies, to cut down the risk of compromise by investing in their workers and supplying an participating cybersecurity schooling application that will aid them location social engineering ripoffs, these kinds of as phishing e-mail.

“Organizations that suffer a info breach explore the charges to recover have a important economic affect,” noted McQuiggan. 

“In comparison, the prices to implement a security consciousness coaching software for their workers are reduce.”