Live Oak, Fl (WTXL)-- Patients of the Shands Live Oak Regional Medical Center may have had their information compromised by hackers in a security breech.
The hospital is operated by Community Health Systems, who say a cyber attack took over 4 million of their patients' information from all over the county.
The company says the attack was able to bypass security systems far enough to access patient names, addresses, birth-dates, phone numbers and Social Security numbers. However, medical and credit card information were safe from the hackers.
Community Health Systems announced the attack happened in April and June. They are working to notify the patients affected and are offering identity theft protection services.
A special call center( 855-205-6951 ) is being established to assist patients affected by the data breach.
Statement Released by Shands Live Oak Regional Medical Center:
Limited personal identification data belonging to some patients who were seen at physician practices and clinics affiliated with Shands Live Oak Regional Medical Center over the past five years was transferred out of our organization in a criminal cyber attack by a foreign-based intruder. The transferred information did not include any medical information or credit card information, but it did include names, addresses, birthdates, telephone numbers and social security numbers.
We take very seriously the security and confidentiality of private patient information and we sincerely regret any concern or inconvenience to patients. Though we have no reason to believe that this data would ever be used, all affected patients are being notified by letter and offered free identity theft protection.
Our organization believes the intruder was a foreign-based group out of China that was likely looking for intellectual property. The intruder used highly sophisticated methods to bypass security systems. The intruder has been eradicated and applications have been deployed to protect against future attacks. We are working with federal law enforcement authorities in their investigation and will support prosecution of those responsible for this attack.
Many American companies and organizations have been victimized by foreign-based cyber intrusions. It is up to the Federal Government to create a national cyber defense that can prevent this type of criminal invasion from happening in the future.
