The Chicago-based health insurer Bankers Life, a division of CNO Financial Group Inc., has discovered hackers gained access to its systems and potentially stole the personal information of more than half a million individuals.

Bankers Life provides a range of insurance services to customers, including life insurance, long term care insurance, health insurance, and Medicare supplemental insurance and is the largest division of CNO Financial Group.

Hackers first gained access to its systems between May 30 and September 13, 2013. Bankers Life said it discovered the breach on August 7, 2018.

The hackers gained access to a range of sensitive personal information of a ‘limited number’ of its employees. A ‘limited group’ of customers had names, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, bank account numbers, state identification numbers, medication information, diagnoses, and treatment information exposed. The protected health information of a much larger group of customers was also potentially accessed by the hackers. For that group, names, addresses, dates of birth, insurance policy numbers, insurance type, premium amounts, dates of service, claim amounts, and the last four digits of Social Security numbers were potentially stolen.

Bankers Life hired a third-party computer forensics investigator to conduct an investigation into the breach to determine how access was gained to its systems and the extent of the breach. The details of how the hackers gained access to its systems has not been publicly disclosed.

Bankers Life has now taken steps to restrict access to its systems, monitoring has been enhanced, and additional security procedures have now been implemented to prevent further breaches.

The disclosure of the breach was delayed at the request of federal investigators. Affected customers are now being notified and have been offered free identity theft repair and credit monitoring services.

The breach report submitted to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights indicates 566,217 customers have been affected by the breach.

The Bankers Life data breach is the fifth largest healthcare data breach to be reported in 2018.

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Approximately 10,000 patients of Raley’s Pharmacy are being notified that some of their protected health information (PHI) has potentially been compromised.

On September 24, 2018, a laptop computer was stolen from a Raley’s pharmacy that may have contained some patients’ PHI.

Raley’s pharmacy immediately launched an investigation to determine what information was stored on the device. Interviews were conducted with staff members who had used the device in an attempt to understand the types of content that may have been exposed. The email accounts of employees were also checked for attachments and links to documents that contained ePHI, to determine which files had been downloaded or were stored in cache files in a temporary directory on the laptop.

After careful analysis, Raley’s Pharmacy was able to determine that the only patients affected by the security incident were those that had visited a Raley’s, Bel Air, and Nob Hill Foods pharmacy between January 1, 2017 and September 24, 2018 to have prescriptions filled.

An analysis of the files which had potentially been downloaded to the laptop confirmed that highly sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, addresses, credit card information, and driver’s license numbers had not been compromised. The breach was limited to first and last names, gender, dates of birth, visit dates, pharmacy location visited, medical condition, prescription information, and health plan ID numbers.

Since Health plan/insurance information has potentially been exposed, affected patients have been advised to monitor their Explanation of Benefits statements for any sign of fraudulent activity.

The security incident has prompted Raley’s Pharmacy to implement encryption on all laptops to prevent data access by unauthorized individuals should further theft incidents occur. Additional security controls are also being evaluated.

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The protected health information of up to 40,000 patients of the Jones Eye Clinic and its affiliated surgery center, CJ Elmwood Partners, L.P, in Sioux City, IA has potentially been compromised.

The breach is the result of a ransomware attack which affected data stored in an information system used for scheduling appointments and billing patients. Electronic medical records were unaffected as they were housed in a separate system which was not accessed by the attacker.

Jones Eye Clinic discovered the ransomware attack on August 23, 2018, although an investigation by a third-party forensic investigator revealed that the attacker gained access to its system and installed the ransomware on the evening of August 22.

A ransom was demanded for the keys to decrypt the files; however, no payment was made as it was possible to recover the files from backups. A full data restoration was completed on August 23.

The investigation into the ransomware attack did not uncover any evidence to suggest that the attacker viewed or obtained patient data, although since data theft could not be ruled out, all affected patients have been offered free credit monitoring services for 12 months. Patients have been notified of the data breach by mail and have up to January 19, 2019 to enroll for credit monitoring services.

The information potentially accessed was limited to full names, dates of birth, addresses, medical record numbers, dates of service, and general descriptions of surgical procedures and clinic visits. Some patients may also have had their insurance status, Social Security number, and claims information exposed. Jones Eye Clinic does not believe financial information was accessed or exposed.

The breach potentially affects all patients of the eye clinic and surgery center who registered or received medical services between January 1, 2003 and August 23, 2018.

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On August 13, 2018, Catawba Valley Medical Center (CVMC) in Hickory, NC discovered an unauthorised individual accessed the email account of a CVMC employee. Upon discovery of the email breach, steps were taken to secure the account and prevent further access and a third-party computer forensics firm was called in to assist with the investigation and determine the extent of the breach.

That investigation revealed that between July 4 and August 17, 2018, three employees’ email accounts had been compromised after the employees responded to phishing emails. Some of the emails in those accounts contained patients’ protected health information including names, dates of birth, details of medical services received at CVMC, health insurance details, and for certain patients, Social Security numbers.

No evidence was found to suggest that any emails had been accessed or copied and no information has been received to suggest patient health information has been misused in any way.

The phishing incidents have prompted CVMC to hire security experts to enhance employee education, more robust email security controls have been implemented, and CVMC will continue to upgrade hardware and software as appropriate to repel malicious threats.

All patients whose protected health information may have been compromised as a result of the email account breaches were notified by mail on October 12, 2018.

The breach summary on the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights’ breach portal indicates up to 20,000 patients have potentially been affected by the email account breaches.

Byram Healthcare Alerts Patients to Insider Breach

Byram Healthcare, a provider of medical supplies, has been informed by law enforcement that a former employee has been accused of stealing the credit card information of patients.

Byram Healthcare investigated the incident and determined that the employee had access to personal information including names, addresses, dates of birth, limited health information, and credit card numbers, but not Social Security numbers. It is unclear at this stage how many patients have been affected.

Byram Healthcare has responded to the breach by providing further training to staff on privacy and security obligations and safeguarding patients’ protected health information. Monitoring of staff has also been increased.  Affected patients were notified by mail of the privacy violation and possible theft of PHI on October 22, 2018.

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Texas-based First Care Health Plans is notifying more than 8,000 plan members that some of their personal information may have been impermissibly disclosed as a result of automated reports being accidentally emailed to an incorrect recipient.

The daily reports were automatically generated and sent to an email distribution list. The reports contained medical requests which included members’ names, member ID numbers, procedure codes, descriptions of treatments, authorization numbers, and names of treating providers.

On August 15, 2018, the FirstCare IT security team became aware that the reports had been sent to an external email address in error and the emails had not been encrypted. An investigation into the incident revealed the reports had been sent over a period of 17 months, starting on March 22, 2017. The reports contained the protected health information of 8,056 plan members.

FirstCare explained in its breach notice that various security solutions had been deployed to monitor for unauthorized access, acquisition, and unauthorized use of ePHI, but they had failed to identify the misdirected emails.

Upon discovery of the error, the incorrect recipient was removed from the distribution list and a full review was conducted of all other automated reports to ensure similar errors had not been made. FirstCare has now developed a new protocol to ensure the recipients of active reports are regularly monitored and new auditing parameters have been implemented related to change controls.

FirstCare has taken several steps to contact the user of the email account and secure the ePHI. Emails were sent to the account in an attempt to get the user to make contact, but those attempts failed.  FirstCare also engaged the U.S Federal Government to investigate and help identify the owner of the email account to minimize the potential for harm.

“We have not received any indication that the information has been accessed or used by an unauthorized individual,” explained FirstCare in its substitute breach notice. Since it is not possible to confirm whether there has been an impermissible disclosure of ePHI, FirstCare is offering to reimburse all affected patients for one year of credit monitoring services through LifeLock.

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Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) has discovered the email accounts of two employees have been compromised following successful phishing attacks on August 23 and August 29, 2018.

On August 24, CHOP discovered an unauthorized individual had gained access to the email account of a one of its physicians. The investigation revealed the account was first accessed the previous day. Two weeks later, on September 6, CHOP discovered a second email account had also been compromised. In that case, access to the account was first gained on August 29. In both cases, prompt action was taken to secure the accounts and prevent further access. A leading computer forensics firm was also retained to assist with the investigation and assess the scope of the breach.

An analysis of the email accounts revealed the individual(s) behind the phishing attacks may have been able to gain access to the protected health information (PHI) of a limited number of patients of CHOP’s neonatal and fetal programs. The information that was exposed differs from patient to patient and may have included a full name, birth date, and clinical information related to neonatal/fetal services received at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and, in a limited number of cases, the Hospital of the University of Philadelphia. No Social Security numbers or financial information were compromised at any point.

While emails in the account were potentially accessed and ePHI may have been stolen, CHOP has not uncovered any evidence to suggest that patient information has been misused.

Mothers and parents/legal guardians of current and former patients were notified of the breach by mail on October 23, 2018. Affected individuals have been advised to monitor statements from their healthcare providers for any signs of fraudulent activity.

CHOP has not yet disclosed how many individuals have been affected. The phishing incidents have yet to appear on the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights breach portal.

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