Texas Retina Associates says March cyber attack impacted over 300,000 patients

Dallas, Texas-based healthcare services provider Texas Retina Associates suffered a significant data security incident that compromised the sensitive personal information of more than 300,000 individuals.

 

In a data security incident notice on its website, Texas Retina said that on March 27, it identified suspicious activities in its internal network. The healthcare services provider immediately launched an investigation, with assistance from external cyber security experts, to determine the nature and scope of the incident.

 

“Our investigation determined that an unauthorised actor accessed our systems beginning on October 8, 2023, and, as a result, may have accessed or obtained certain files,” the healthcare company said.

 

The compromised data included names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, gender, Social Security numbers, medical record numbers, clinical information, prescription information, medical information, health information, and health insurance information.

 

While the notice did not state the number of affected individuals, Texas Retina’s filing with the Office of Attorney General of Texas revealed that at least 297,500 individuals were impacted by the incident. However, in a separate filing with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights, Texas Retina said that it has identified 312,867 individuals who were impacted by the same incident.

 

In response to this incident, the healthcare service provider took steps to secure its systems and implemented additional cybersecurity safeguards, including training its employees to avoid such incidents in the future.

 

Texas Retina said it found no evidence of the compromised information being misused, but 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.

 

On April 22, the BianLian ransomware group claimed responsibility for the cyber attack on Texas Retina and listed it as a victim on its data leak site.