Molly Callahan reports:
Boston University’s renowned Framingham Heart Study (FHS) was breached by hackers, who gained access to the data of participants—both living and deceased—of the country’s longest running, multigenerational heart study.
BU officials say the hackers gained access to the study’s server, but that information technology specialists from BU and FHS were able to intervene and quarantine the servers, stopping the attack as it was occurring. However, the hackers still copied, downloaded, and transferred files that contained study participants’ personal and medical information, BU officials said. Information relating to all 15,448 participants was affected; officials confirmed that the breach involved the Social Security numbers of less than 2 percent of the participants.
Read more at BU Today.
The study still has the data, but the concern is for participants who had their personal and health information copied and downloaded.