The Summerville Journal Scene reports:
MUSC says it has had its financial records hacked and credit card information for some 7,000 people has been compromised, according to area reports.
At some point between June 30 and August 21, the records of Blackhawk Consulting Group were compromised and hackers got the credit card information for patients who used their credit cards to paid medical bills, reports say. However, individuals who paid with a credit card in person and individuals who paid an MUSC bill by check or cash are not affected, according to the MUSC website.
Read more on Summerville Journal Scene. The Post and Courier also provides media coverage on the breach, as does WCSC. The former reports:
Blackhawk’s website lists dozens of other clients, including Yale University, Johns Hopkins Hospital and Northwestern University, but Mary Ellen Callahan, an attorney for the Illinois-based company, said only two other Blackhawk clients in addition to MUSC were impacted. Callahan would not disclose which other clients were victimized, but said they were not in South Carolina.
So it seems that we may be seeing two other breach reports related to the same incident.
WCSC reports that MUSC first learned of the breach on August 22 from Blackhawk, but there is no indication as to how Blackhawk discovered the breach.
According to the Medical University of South Carolina FAQ on the breach, patients’ credit card number, expiration date, CVV2 (Authorization number), name, billing address, and email address were exposed in the breach. The FAQ does not indicate whether Blackhawk Consulting was supposed to be storing all that credit card information nor whether MUSC’s contract with them required them to encrypt data.
Those affected are being offered free enrollment in a credit protection, monitoring and restoration service program through Experian.
Contract or not, Encryption is a basic concept of PCI. Excerpt from PCI DSS –
“Do use strong cryptography to render unreadable cardholder data that you store, and use other
layered security technologies to minimize the risk of exploits by criminals”
You’re right, of course, but I was thinking of what HHS will specifically look for in the BA contract. If there is nothing in the contract – or if there is something in the contract but no indication that MUSC monitored compliance with it – that will make it more likely that HHS may issue a monetary penalty to MUSC.