ABCD Pediatrics recently suffered ransomware attack. According to the statement, a virus was inserted to gain access to the healthcare organization’s servers. Patient data was encrypted in the process. Facility contacted IT personnel to take all servers offline. It is conducting detailed analysis.
Experts came to conclusion that this particular type of virus has likely not removed the information from the server. Facility also mentioned that user accounts may have been accessed through it’s network. Affected information includes names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, insurance billing information, medical records, and lab reports.
As per the OCR data breach reporting tool, approximately 55,447 patients may have been affected. ABCD has successfully removed the virus from the system. Corrupted data was also removed from its servers. Secure backup of the facility is not affected and thus used to restore all impacted data. It also mentioned that no PHI was lost or destroyed in the incident.
“Also, please note that ABCD never received any ransom demands or other communications from unknown persons,” ABCD stated. “However, ABCD remains concerned because it discovered user logs indicating that computer programs or persons may have been on the server for a limited period of time.”
Facility has upgraded it cyber security monitoring program to stop future incidents. Call centre is setup for the affected patients.
“Patients also can place a fraud alert on their credit files with the three major credit reporting agencies. A fraud alert is a consumer statement added to one’s credit report. The fraud alert signals creditors to take additional steps to verify one’s identity prior to granting credit. This service can make it more difficult for someone to get credit in one’s name, though it may also delay one’s ability to obtain credit while the agency verifies identity.”
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