UCLA Health System Hacked in Massive Cyber Attack Affecting 4.5 Million
Reported Friday July 17th: UCLA Health System Hacked leaving 4.5 million patients with compromised Social Security Numbers and other vital health information.
Despite the UCLA Health System hack, this cyber attack occurring nearly a year ago in September of 2014, patients were not notified until July 17th. UCLA Health System detected suspicious activity on its networks back in October 2014. The hackers made away with Social Security numbers, medical diagnoses, diseases, clinical procedures, test results, addresses, and dates of birth. “We take this attack on our systems extremely seriously,” said James Atkinson, MD, interim associate vice chancellor and president of the UCLA Hospital System, in a July 17th statement. “We sincerely regret any impact this incident may have on those we serve.
“This hack was followed by the massive cyber attack which targeted Anthem Blue Cross back in February. Anthem’s health system cyber attach compromised the confidential data of up to 80 million current and former members. The healthcare industry is very vulnerable and needs to be aware that a cyber attack is a big possibility. One would think with the regulatory requirements of HIPAA, something like this wouldn’t happen. Perhaps not everyone has kept their compliance requirements up to date….
“In today’s security environment, large, high-profile organizations such as UCLA Health System are under near-constant attack,” UCLA Health officials acknowledged in a statement. Each year, they’re able to prevent millions of hacker attempts. But not this time around. In response to the attack, UCLA Health System said it is adding to its internal security team and has enlisted help from outside security firms to help monitor and better protect their network from future hacking and other cyber attacks. This is a good reminder and reality check that even the big plans need to entrust their IT Compliance for data access and storage with a the right technology specialists. The UCLA Health System Hack was preventable.
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Information originally obtained from Heathcare IT News. View the story here.
