Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Data Breaches

Patient Information Compromised in Data Breach at San Diego Healthcare Provider

San Diego healthcare services provider Sharp says patient information was compromised in January data breach.

San Diego healthcare services provider Sharp HealthCare is informing patients that some of their information was compromised in a recent data breach.

A not-for-profit healthcare provider, Sharp operates multiple hospitals and facilities in San Diego County, has 19,000 employees and works with roughly 2,700 affiliated physicians.

The incident took place on January 12, when an unauthorized party gained access to a server running the Sharp.com website, the company says in a data breach notice.

According to the healthcare services provider, the unauthorized access lasted for a few hours only, but, during this time, the attackers accessed a file containing patient data.

The compromised information, the company says, includes names, payment amounts, which Sharp facilities received the payments, and Sharp identification numbers and/or invoice numbers.

Payment card data, Social Security numbers, contact information, health insurance details, birth dates, clinical information, or details about received services were not accessed.

“Additionally, this incident did not involve unauthorized access to Sharp’s medical record systems or the FollowMyHealth patient portal,” the healthcare provider says.

According to the organization, the incident only impacted Sharp patients who used the online bill payment service to pay a bill or invoice between August 12, 2021, and January 12, 2023. According to The San Diego Union Tribune, roughly 63,000 individuals were impacted.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

“We have no indication that anyone’s information has been misused. However, as a precaution, we are mailing notification letters to individuals whose information was involved in this incident,” Sharp says.

Stolen personal and medical information is often shared or traded on underground hacker forums and later used by cybercriminals in phishing and other types of cyberattacks.

Related: Vulnerabilities in OpenEMR Healthcare Software Expose Patient Data

Related: Ransomware Hit 200 US Gov, Education and Healthcare Organizations in 2022

Related: Data Breach at Louisiana Healthcare Provider Impacts 270,000 Patients

Written By

Ionut Arghire is an international correspondent for SecurityWeek.

Click to comment

Trending

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Understand how to go beyond effectively communicating new security strategies and recommendations.

Register

Join us for an in depth exploration of the critical nature of software and vendor supply chain security issues with a focus on understanding how attacks against identity infrastructure come with major cascading effects.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Data Breaches

OpenAI has confirmed a ChatGPT data breach on the same day a security firm reported seeing the use of a component affected by an...

Cybercrime

Zendesk is informing customers about a data breach that started with an SMS phishing campaign targeting the company’s employees.

Data Breaches

LastPass DevOp engineer's home computer hacked and implanted with keylogging malware as part of a sustained cyberattack that exfiltrated corporate data from the cloud...

CISO Strategy

Okta is blaming the recent hack of its support system on an employee who logged into a personal Google account on a company-managed laptop.

Data Breaches

Delta Dental of California says over 6.9 million individuals were impacted by a data breach caused by the MOVEit hack.

Data Breaches

Sony shares information on the impact of two recent unrelated hacker attacks carried out by known ransomware groups. 

Data Breaches

A group of hackers has leaked Atlassian employee records and floorplans, information that was obtained from third-party workplace platform Envoy.

Data Breaches

KFC and Taco Bell parent company Yum Brands says personal information was compromised in a January 2023 ransomware attack.