A data breach at a physical therapy center in the United States has exposed the personal information of over 6,500 patients.
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of current and former patients and staff was breached, according to Viverant PT, situated in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Patient names, residences, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, driver’s licence numbers, and medical record numbers are among the details believed to have been leaked.
Sensitive data such as patient names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, and medical record numbers, was reported to have been leaked.
Diagnostic or treatment information, payment card numbers with passwords or security codes, health insurance information, financial account numbers with or without passwords or routing numbers, and digital signatures are some of the other potentially accessed data.
Suspicious Emails
The center disclosed in a statement that it was aware of the issue in March 2021 after “suspicious emails” were sent from an employee’s account.
The center wrote “Once aware of the incident, we immediately investigated the matter and took measures to address and contain the incident, including changing passwords, enacting stricter authentication requirements, conducting employee trainings, and retaining national privacy and security experts,”
The center said that there is “no indication that any information was individually accessed or misused in any way”.
Despite the fact that the data breach was identified in March 2021, it was only recently added to the HIPAA breach portal of the US Department of Health and Human Services.