Cancer treatment and research center City of Hope this week started notifying over 800,000 individuals that their personal and health information was compromised in a data breach.
A National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated comprehensive cancer center, City of Hope is based in Duarte, California, but has a network of clinical practice locations and offices throughout the US.
The data breach occurred between September 19 and October 12, 2023, the center notes in a notification letter to the impacted individuals, a copy of which was submitted to the Maine Attorney General’s Office.
During that time frame, an unauthorized third-party accessed a subset of City of Hope systems and copied some files containing the affected individual’s information.
The stolen data, the organization says, includes names, dates of birth, email addresses, phone numbers, driver’s license numbers, ID numbers, Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, credit card details, health insurance information, and medical information.
“While there is no indication of any identity theft or fraud occurring as a result of this incident, we want to let you know what happened, and the steps that we have taken in response,” City of Hope’s notification letter reads.
Immediately after discovering the incident, the cancer center took steps to contain it, notified law enforcement and regulatory entities, and retained a cybersecurity firm to improve the security of its systems.
The affected individuals are being offered identity monitoring services for two years.
City of Hope told the Maine AGO that more than 800,000 individuals were affected by the data breach. Some of them were notified of the incident in December 2023, but not all had been identified until late March 2024, the center says.
On April 2, City of Hope posted on its website an incident notice that reiterates the information in the notification letter.
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