Patient Data Vulnerable in Hospital Cybersecurity Breach

Patient Data Vulnerable in Hospital Cybersecurity Breach

  • By Sydny Shepard
  • Dec 09, 2015

Middlesex Hospital in Middletown, Connecticut announced in early December that they suffered a data breach in October that compromised the information of almost 1,000 patients.

The hospital says that on October 9, it was discovered that four of the facility’s employees had been victims of an email phishing scam, which allowed a breach into the hospital’s records.

 In all, information for 946 patients may have been compromised. No social security number or credit card information was accessed, but the breach did unveil a security weakness that may have released names, addresses, dates of birth, medical record numbers, medications that patients take, dates of service and diagnoses.

All patients who may have been impacted were contacted and offered a free year of credit monitoring, and the hospital says it is taking steps to prevent a similar occurrence in the future.

About the Author

Sydny Shepard is the Executive Editor of Campus Security & Life Safety.

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