Texas oncology centre says data breach impacted over 176,000 patients

San Antonio, Texas-based healthcare services provider South Texas Oncology and Hematology recently disclosed a data security incident that compromised the sensitive personal information of more than 175,000 individuals.

 

In a data breach notice filed with the Office of the Maine Attorney General, the oncology clinic said that on February 15, it detected unusual activity in its network and immediately launched an investigation, with assistance from external cyber security experts, to determine the nature and scope of the incident.

 

It also disconnected all access to the affected network and notified law enforcement about the incident.

 

“Based on STOH’s preliminary findings, information pertaining to some STOH employees, and/or patients was stored on the impacted systems,” STOH said in a notice pasted on its website.

 

The compromised data included names, other personal identifiers and medical record information. The clinic’s filing with the Maine state regulator revealed that at least 176,303 individuals were impacted by the data security incident.

 

“Upon discovery of the Incident, STOH moved quickly to investigate and respond to the Incident, assessed the security of its systems, and notified the potentially affected individuals.

 

“STOH promptly took steps to contain and remediate its impact, including employing appropriate protective and corrective measures to protect the integrity of its systems infrastructure and data. STOH’s information technology (IT) team worked to contain the situation and to isolate and rebuild affected machines,” it added.

 

While STOH found no evidence of the compromised information being misused, it 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.