Over 500,000 Patients Hit by Data Breaches at Healthcare Firms in Alabama, Colorado

The information of more than half a million individuals was likely compromised after three healthcare services providers in Alabama and Colorado suffered cybersecurity breaches.

Patients Hit by Data Breaches

The most recent cyberattack – and most impactful – targeted South Denver Cardiology Associates and resulted in the data of more than 287,000 patients being exfiltrated.

The Colorado firm identified the attack on January 4 and later discovered that an unknown party had access to certain systems in its network between January 2 and January 5, 2022.

Potentially compromised data may have included names, birth dates, drivers’ license numbers, Social Security numbers, and various other patient data. Patient medical records, however, were not compromised, the company says.

The healthcare firm says it started notifying impacted individuals last week, but made no mention whether ransomware was used in the attack.

Another healthcare services provider that recently started notifying patients of a data breach is the Birmingham, Alabama-based Norwood Clinic.

The firm told the Maine Attorney General’s office that over 228,000 individuals were likely impacted by a data breach that started on September 20, 2021, and was discovered a month later, on October 22.

During that time, the attackers were able to access protected patient information, including names, birth dates, contact data, Social Security numbers, and various types of health information.

“However, the investigation was unable to confirm the specific information that may have been accessed. Therefore, out of an abundance of caution, Norwood is providing notice to all of its patients, regardless of whether their information was in fact subject to unauthorized access or acquisition,” the firm said in the notification letter.

Montrose Regional Health, which is also based in Colorado, is the third healthcare services provider to have disclosed a data breach over the past couple of weeks.

The firm notified the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that over 52,000 individuals were impacted by unauthorized access to the email accounts of certain employees, between August 2 and October 26, 2021.

Potentially impacted information includes names, patient account numbers, treatment dates and costs, and additional health information, Montrose Regional Health says in a data breach notification.

The company has reset account passwords and has also started notifying impacted individuals about the incident.

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Remember, CyberSecurity Starts With You!

• Globally, 30,000 websites are hacked daily.
• 64% of companies worldwide have experienced at least one form of a cyber attack.
• There were 20M breached records in March 2021.
• In 2020, ransomware cases grew by 150%.
• Email is responsible for around 94% of all malware.
• Every 39 seconds, there is a new attack somewhere on the web.
• An average of around 24,000 malicious mobile apps are blocked daily on the internet.