Michigan-based Complete Chiropractic and Bodywork Therapies may have suffered potential data breach after its server was accessed by an unauthorized entity. As per the OCR’s data breach portal, around 4,082 individuals were affected by the incident.
According to the statement, an outside entity gained access to a server which stored PHI information. The facility found the intrusion when its server malfunctioned. Afterwards malware infected its systems. Malware probably have scanned its systems to acquire login and password information.Affected information includes patient data, including treatment, billing and EHR information.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we notified all affected patients, offered them one-year of free identity theft protection through LifeLock, and provided them with recommended actions they can take to protect their information from identity theft. For example, we recommend that any affected patients obtain their credit reports from one or more of the major credit reporting agencies, and monitoring financial and bank accounts for unauthorized activity.”
According to EHR systems PHI which includes names, dates of birth, addresses, Social Security numbers, health information, and diagnosis information was encrypted and thus was not breached.
“However, there is no indication that this information was actually taken or inappropriately used – only that there was an opportunity for the same,” explained Complete Chiropractic and Bodywork Therapies.
Practice secured the server by disabling its connection to the internet. Passwords for all workstation and vendor profiles were changed. It also implemented additional security safeguards, such as adding an extra external firewall to track incoming and outgoing traffic. The chiropractic office has notified all affected individuals.
“CCBT [Complete Chiropractic and Bodyworks Therapies] deeply regrets that this incident occurred,” explained the statement. “We are taking this matter very seriously and are working hard to make sure this does not happen again. CCBT hired new IT professionals who come highly recommended based on their HIPAA compliance experience. With the guidance of our new IT professionals, we are adding to the IT safeguards that CCBT already maintained.”
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