California sperm bank says cyber attack compromised patients' data

California Cryobank, one of the largest sperm banks in the U.S., said the sensitive personal information of its patients was compromised during a major cyber security incident in April last year.

 

Headquartered in Los Angeles, California Cryobank is a full-service reproductive tissue bank that specialises in sperm and egg donation, fertility preservation, and genetic services. It is one of the largest sperm banks in the U.S. and caters to patients globally.

 

In a data security incident notice filed with the Office of Maine attorney General, CCB said that on April 21, 2024, it detected suspicious activity in its internal network. The company immediately launched an investigation, with assistance from external cyber security experts, to determine the nature and scope of the incident.

 

“Through our investigation, CCB determined that an unauthorised party gained access to our IT environment and may have accessed and/or acquired files maintained on certain computer systems between April 20, 2024 and April 22, 2024,” reads the notice.

 

The compromised data included patients’ names, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, financial account numbers and health insurance information. CCB is yet to share details on the number of affected individuals.

 

“To help prevent something like this from happening again, we have implemented, and will continue to adopt, additional safeguards and technical security measures to further protect and monitor our systems,” CCB added.

 

CCB has advised all affected individuals to regularly monitor their credit reports, account and benefit statements and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement authorities, including the police and state attorney general. 

 

It has also offered one year of complimentary identity protection and credit monitoring services through CyberScout to all affected individuals.

 

At the time of publishing, no known hacker group claimed responsibility for the ransomware attack on CCB. The company also did not share details on who was behind the cyber attack, how much data was compromised, or whether it has received a ransom demand.