Cardiology group's patient records hacked
Jun. 12—Hackers breached a Scranton cardiology group's computer network and potentially obtained the private data of an unspecified number of patients and others, the Commonwealth Health System announced Monday.
The breach first occurred Feb. 2 in data maintained by Commonwealth Health Physician Network-Cardiology, also known as Great Valley Cardiology. The breach wasn't discovered until April 13, the system said in a news release.
The information exposed included names, addresses and demographic information such as dates of birth; Social Security, driver's license and passport numbers; credit card or debit card and bank accounts; and health insurance, claims and medical information. The medical information includes dates of service, diagnoses, medications and lab results.
The cardiology group disconnected its network from the internet and disabled VPN access to prevent further access and referred the matter to law enforcement, according to the news release.
The news release does not explain why the system waited two months to publicly announce the breach, which law enforcement agency is working on the matter, how many customers were affected and how the breach went undetected for two months.
The system is offering affected people free access to Experian IdentityWorks SM for 24 months to provide ID restoration and credit monitoring services. The group has a toll-free response line, 833-901-4624, available Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Information about signing up for the Experian services is included in letters mailed to individuals and is on the GVC website at https://www.cwhphysiciannetwork.net/.
"We are committed to the privacy of our patients' personal information and regret any inconvenience this incident may cause," the system said.
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