Sarah Volpenhein reports: Nearly 5.6 million people were affected in the ransomware attack that hit Ascension in May, the national health system now says. Until now, the health system had not publicly disclosed the total number of people affected by the May ransomware attack that compromised patient data and ultimately caused major disruptions to patient…
Category: Health Data
CA: Ontario Provincial Police charge three former hospital employees PHIPA violations of patient privacy breaches
Toula Mazloum reports: Three former hospital employees have been charged following investigations into unrelated alleged breach of patient privacy incidents that took place over the course of last year in different parts of the province, according to the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). The investigations started after police received three complaints in western, eastern and northern…
ConnectOnCall breach exposes health data of over 910,000 patients
Sergiu Gatlan reports: Healthcare software as a service (SaaS) company Phreesia is notifying over 910,000 people that their personal and health data was exposed in a May breach of its subsidiary ConnectOnCall, acquired in October 2023. ConnectOnCall is a telehealth platform and after-hours on-call answering service with automated patient call tracking for healthcare providers. “On…
Nebraska AG becomes first state to sue Change Healthcare over massive data breach
Aaron Sanderford reports: Nebraska on Monday became the first state to sue Tennessee-based Change Healthcare over the company’s massive data breach that cost at least 575,000 Nebraskans their personal information and medical records. … The breach was blamed on a low-level employee who had his or her login credentials hacked. Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers…
Kitsap Mental Health Services breach impacted sensitive patient information (1)
Update: DataBreaches did not spot it earlier, but on December 12, Kitsap Mental Health Services posted a notice on its website about a cyberattack that it reportedly detected on October 17, 2024. Investigation revealed that on September 17 and between October 8, 2024, and October 19, 2024, there was unauthorized access to their network and…
Boston University and Feds Investigating Hacking of Framingham Heart Study Data
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…