Nonprofit Community Medical Centers (CMC), located in California, reported a data breach earlier this week. The organization allegedly detected unusual network activity, however, the full extent of the breach has been assessed further. The medical centers, which are headquartered in Stockton, primarily serve low-income patients, migrants, and homeless people in the Northern California region. Cybercriminals may have accessed the protected health information of hundreds of thousands of these patients in the recent breach.
The agency shut down its entire network, including servers, computers, and phone lines, upon detecting the instruction. The phone lines were used by patients to access medical records, make appointments, and receive important information relating to Covid-19. CMC has launched an investigation into the incident with the help of cybersecurity professionals. The investigation revealed that unauthorized individuals had accessed parts of its network in which patients’ private health information was stored. The information exposed in the breach may include first and last names, mailing addresses, dates of birth, demographic information, medical information, and Social Security numbers. According to a breach report filed with the Maine attorney general states that as many as 656,047 individuals were impacted by the incident, 8 of whom are Maine residents.
