Dive Brief:
- Indiana-based Medical Informatics Engineering said the a data breach has affected patients of Concentra, with 300 medical centers in 38 states, Franciscan St. Francis Health in Indianapolis and Rochester Medical Group in Detroit, targeting potentially 3.9 million people.
- The company detected suspicious activity initially on May 26, and immediately began an investigation to identify and remediate any security vulnerability.
- It is working with a third-party team of experts to enhance data security and protection and is cooperating with law enforcement investigations. Notices were mailed July 25 to affected individuals.
Dive Insight:
The company is offering affected people access to two years of credit monitoring and identity protection services for free. Health care data breaches continue to be a huge problem, with the healthcare industry taking the top spot in 2014 with 42.5 percent, followed by the business sector, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. Also, hacking was the main cause of data breaches last year, accounting for almost 30 percent of the total.
The ITRC attributed the rise of the medical/healthcare sector to the top spot in 2012 due to mandatory reporting to the Department of Health and Human Services. Adam Levin, founder and chairman of IDT911 - a company that provides identity management and data breach programs, said he anticipates "more massive takedowns, hacks and exposure of sensitive personal information like we have witnessed in years past. Medical data and business information, like intellectual property will be prime targets, with cyber thieves looking for opportunistic financial gain based on black market value, corporate extortion, and cyber terrorism."