Phishing Attack on UConn Health exposes Personal Information of around 326,000 Patients

Phishing as well as other hacking incidents, in recent times, have led to numerous reported big health data breaches that include the latest phishing attack on UConn Health, which affected around 326,000 individuals.

On Dec. 24, 2018, the UConn Health came to know that there was a phishing attack on them. UConn Health said, while describing this phishing attack, that on December 24 of last year they determined that an unrecognized and unauthorized third party has accessed email accounts of a few UConn Health's employees, illegally. The employee email accounts that were accessed contained information of the patients like their names, addresses, dates of birth, as well as limited medical information like appointment and billing information. These email accounts also have Social Security numbers of a few patients.

As per a media statement of the UConn Health, they identified around 326,000 individuals who were possibly impacted and whose personal information was there in compromised email accounts. UConn Health said that out of those 326,000 individuals, there were 1,500 patients whose Social Security Number could have been exposed in the
phishing attack.

The UConn Health statement further states that "it is important to note that, at this point, UConn Health does not know for certain if any personal information was ever viewed or acquired by the unauthorized party, and is not aware of any instances of fraud or identity theft as a result of this incident". The UConn Health statement also added that this incident does not have any impact on the computer networks or the electronic medical record systems of the UConn Health.

UConn Health states that as soon as it came to know about the breach, it took necessary actions immediately. The accounts that were impacted were secured to prevent any further unauthorized access, and they also confirm security of their email system. UConn Health says that they have notified the law enforcement officials, and has also hired one of the top forensic security firms for investigating. Moreover, prepaid identity theft protection services have been offered by UConn Health to the individuals who have their Social Security numbers impacted.

» SPAMfighter News - 3/18/2019