Update: This incident was reported to HHS as affecting 1,362,470 patients.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) has posted a notice on its site about a data breach at one of its contractors, Maximus Federal Services, Inc. Maximus was one of hundreds of victims of a 0day attack on MOVEit file transfer software by the Clop ransomware gang.
Maximus detected unusual activity on May 30 and reported the incident to CMS on June 2. CMS estimates that approximately 645,000 Medicare numbers had their information caught up in the attack.
The types of personal and protected health information that may have been acquired by the threat actors included:
- Name
- Social Security Number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number
- Date of Birth
- Mailing Address
- Telephone Number, Fax Number, and Email Address
- Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) or Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN)
- Driver’s License Number and State Identification Number
- Medical History/Notes (including medical record/account numbers, conditions,
diagnoses, dates of service, images, treatments, etc.) - Healthcare Provider and Prescription Information
- Health Insurance Claims and Policy/Subscriber Information
- Health Benefits & Enrollment Information
Those whose Medicare number was involved will be issued new Medicare numbers by CMS. Maximus is also offering 2 years of credit protection monitoring and other services to those who were affected.
CMS’s notice states:
At this time, CMS is not aware of any reports of identity fraud or improper use of information of people with Medicare as a direct result of this incident. However, you may want to take the following actions:
- Contact the Experian dedicated and confidential toll-free response line at (833) 919-4749 if you have any questions. This response line is staffed with professionals familiar with this incident and the credit monitoring products available. The response line is available Monday through Friday from 8 am – 10 pm Central, or Saturday and Sunday from 10 am – 7 pm Central (excluding major U.S. holidays).
- If you believe that your Medicare Number may have been impacted, you can get more information and ask if your Number can be changed by calling 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800- 633-4227).
As reported on this site earlier today, Maximus estimates that 8-11 million people have been affected by the attack on them. Maximus had been listed on Clop’s site but without any data. Sometime between yesterday and earlier this morning, the listing was removed.
Thanks to Brett Callow for alerting us to this notice.