Vidant Health reportedly experienced a data breach earlier this month, affecting employees at its Duplin hospital. Reflector reports that the system released the following statement:
“Vidant Health discovered that personal information for Vidant Duplin Hospital employees was subject to unauthorized access by an outside source. The unauthorized access occurred in early February. We notified employees in writing and meetings. Vidant has controls surrounding employees’ information. These controls worked to discover the unintended access and avoided additional information disclosure. We have arranged for all of our Duplin Hospital employees to have free identity and fraud monitoring services for 12 months. We value the security of every employee’s personal information and sincerely regret this incident and any inconvenience it may have caused our employees.”
The system did not disclose the number of employees affected, and whether this only impacted current employees or also impacted former employees. Nor is it clear from their statement whether this was a hack or a phishing incident, or some other external attack.
The health system comprises eight hospitals: Vidant Medical Center, (formerly Pitt Memorial) Greenville – Flagship Hospital, Vidant Beaufort Hospital, Vidant Bertie Hospital, Vidant Chowan Hospital, Vidant Duplin Hospital, Vidant Edgecombe Hospital, (previously, Heritage Hospital), Vidant Roanoke-Chowan Hospital, The Outer Banks Hospital, (jointly owned with Chesapeake Regional Medical Center)