Miami Herald staff report:
Barry University announced Monday night it is notifying patients of its Foot and Ankle Institute that their medical records and personal information may have been hacked.
The security breach was detected around May 14th via a school laptop infected by a form of malware – software used mainly to gain access to private computer systems.
The university launched a probe and hired an outside computer forensic company to investigate the extent of the infection and remove the malware infection from the university’s network, the school said in a news release.
The affected files have been restored to their original state and there is no longer any evidence of active malware on the device, the school said.
But Barry University has determined – seven-months after the incident – that certain sensitive information of patients treated at the institute may have been compromised. The number of patients affected was not released by the school.
The information at risk includes patients’ full name, date of birth, Social Security number, bank account number, credit/debit card number, driver’s license number, medical record number, health insurance information, diagnosis, and/or health information about specific treatment they received at the Miami Shores school.
Read more on Miami Herald. There does not seem to be any statement on Barry U.’s site or the clinic’s site at the time of this posting.
Once again – and frustratingly – an entity states it has not received any reports of identity fraud or theft resulting from the breach. Well, how could it if patients might have no way to link fraud they experienced to the breach in the absence of notification of the breach? In my opinion, breached entities – and not just in the health care sector – should not be allowed to make such statements without some qualifiers.
And while Barry U. is taking steps to secure its system, it hasn’t explained how the malware got on the laptop or how it’s going to prevent that from happening again.
Those affected are being offered free credit monitoring services, which sounds right given the nature of the breached information and the entity’s inability to determine if it was actually exfiltrated.