Tara Bannow reports:
Advantage Dental, a Redmond-based provider that serves low-income patients at more than 30 clinics in Oregon, announced Monday an intruder had breached its internal membership database in late February and accessed information on more than 151,000 patients.
Compromised data included names, Social Security numbers, birthdates, phone numbers and home addresses, but not treatment or financial information.
Read more on The Bend Bulletin.
A statement on Advantage Dental’s web site, linked from the home page, reads:
PATIENTS NOTIFIED OF BREACH OF UNSECURED PERSONAL INFORMATION Advantage Dental (“Advantage”), an Oregon-based dental services provider notified 151,626 patients of a breach of personal patient protected health information (PHI/HIPAA) after its intrusion detection system discovered an internal database at Advantage was illegally accessed. The unauthorized access occurred between February 23, 2015 and February 26, 2015. The intruder was able to gain access to this database through a computer that had been infected with malware. Advantage terminated the illegal access immediately upon discovery on February 26, 2015. The intrusion resulted in the unauthorized access to the name, date of birth, phone number, social security number, and home address. No treatment, payment, or any other financial data was accessed.Since terminating the illegal access, Advantage has been reviewing and improving its safeguards, implemented mitigation steps to prevent further access and has been working with law enforcement to properly determine the scope of the incident and any additional steps that might be required. At this time, Advantage has no indication that the stolen information has been used for criminal activity, to include identity theft.
In conjunction with law enforcement, Advantage is working to notify impacted patients. Advantage has in place safeguards to assure the privacy and security of all patient health information. Advantage is always looking for further ways to improve the security of its operations and will continue to do so.
In a notification to patients, Advantage has offered their resources as well as credit monitoring and call center support through Experian®. Experian® has trained staff available for patients to call with any questions related to this event. Patients may call (866) 271-3084 from 6:00am – 6:00pm (PDT), Monday through Friday, and 8:00am – 5:00pm (PDT) Saturday and Sunday, with any questions or concerns. Advantage also is offering Experian’s premium ProtectMyID® Elite product for two years at no charge. Affected patients will receive a letter in the mail with the details on how to sign up for these services. We at Advantage are confident that this offering will best serve the affected patients. In addition, patients may visit Advantage’s web site at: www.advantagedental.com.