Going to the doctor can be scary enough as it is but what if all of your sensitive personal and health information were to suddenly end up in the hands of hackers? Well, that’s what just happened to more than one million Americans.
As reported by Cyber Security News, the Connecticut-based health center Community Health Center (CHC) has revealed that it fell victim to a data breach following a cyberattack at the beginning of this year. In addition to regular patients, anyone who took a test or received a vaccine for Covid-19 is also affected.
Here’s everything you need to know about this latest healthcare data breach, what you need to do now if you’re affected and some tips and tricks on how to stay safe from hackers that will undoubtedly use this stolen information in their attacks.
From cyberattack to data breach
According to a regulatory filing with the Maine Attorney General’s Office, 1,060,936 individuals in total are affected by this new breach, which was first detected at the beginning of last month.
After identifying unusual activity on its network, CHC sought the help of cybersecurity experts to investigate the matter and secure the nonprofit’s systems. This investigation determined that a hacker had accessed CHC’s systems and extracted the data they contained.
CHC says that the hacker’s access to its systems was terminated within hours and as of now, there’s no ongoing threat to its network. It is worth noting that the exposed data differs significantly between regular CHC patients and Covid-19 test and vaccine recipients.
CHC patients may have had their names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, emails, diagnoses, treatment details, test results, Social Security numbers (SSNs) and their health insurance information exposed. Meanwhile, Covid-19 test and vaccine recipients who are not regular CHC patients might have had their names, dates of birth, phone numbers, emails, addresses, gender, race, ethnicity and insurance details (if provided) exposed as a result of this breach.
How to stay safe after a data breach
With all of this sensitive personal and medical information in hand, hackers can launch targeted phishing attacks or even commit identity theft against impacted individuals. Fortunately though, CHC is offering free access to the best identity theft protection for two years to patients whose personal and health information was exposed in this breach.
The credit and identity monitoring is through CyberScan and to claim this offer, you’re going to want to keep a close eye on your mailbox. In it, you should find a data breach notification letter with an access code and all the steps needed to get it set up.
Likewise, if your identity does get stolen as a result of this breach, CHC is also including a $1 million insurance reimbursement policy and identity recovery assistance.
At the same time, you’re going to want to carefully monitor your emails, texts and messages on social media for anything suspicious. This is because this stolen data could very well be sold off on the dark web to other hackers who will then use it to launch targeted phishing attacks against impacted individuals.
Since these suspicious emails and messages could contain malware, you’re also going to want to make sure that your PC is protected with the best antivirus software, your Apple computer has the best Mac antivirus software and that you’re using one of the best Android antivirus apps on your Android phone.
Unfortunately with a data breach like this one, there’s nothing you can really do to prevent it from happening. Instead, it’s what you do after the fact that’s the most important here. However, if you sign up for CHC’s free identity theft protection and keep a close eye on all of your emails, messages and financial accounts, you should be okay.
More from Tom's Guide
