Dive Brief:
- Bryan, Texas-based St. Joseph Health System (SJHS) has begun notifying more than 400,000 patients and employees that a cyberattack exposed both their personal and medical information.
- In mid-December, hackers gained access to a SJHS server which contained the personal and medical information of about 405,000 people.
- Officials with SJHS have shut down the server and are working with federal law enforcement and security consultants to address the issue.
Dive Insight:
Healthcare data breaches are becoming increasingly common. According to one report, the number of data breaches reported to HHS was up 138% in 2013. Since nothing substantial has changed in healthcare security practices, one has to wonder whether 2014 will be even worse. Given this environment, it makes sense for healthcare organizations to develop a protocol for helping people victimized in these attacks with more than a year of credit monitoring.