Illinois Morris hospital investigating network breach
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Morris Hospital & Healthcare Centers has reported that its computer network experienced unauthorized access by a third party.
The event hpotentially exposed patients' protected health information. Following the detection of unusual activity on the network, the hospital initiated an investigation into the matter.
The attacked network system is separate from the electronic medical record systems that are used for patient care. The hospital’s electronic medical record systems were not compromised.
The Royal ransomware group took responsibility by adding Morris Hospital to their leak site with a small sample of files as proof of claims.
As of May 24, the investigation is ongoing, with efforts focused on identifying specific files on the affected servers to assess whether any sensitive patient data has been compromised.
Update - on 17th August 2023 Morris Hospital disclosed that a total of 248,943 individuals were potentially affected by the breach. Reports surfaced in late May indicating that the Royal ransomware gang had taken responsibility for posting data from the hospital on their leak site. Despite these developments, as of May 23, the hospital was still in the process of investigating the incident.
The announcement acknowledge that unauthorized data exports had occurred to an external cloud storage platform
The potentially compromised data encompassed a range of sensitive information, including
- names,
- addresses,
- dates of birth,
- social security numbers,
- medical record numbers,
- account numbers,
- diagnostic codes.
This information pertains not only to current and former patients of Morris Hospital but also extends to current and former employees, along with their dependents and beneficiaries.
