FILE – An American flag waves in the wind outside Sutter Medical Center on September 20, 2019 in Sacramento, California. Wednesday, February 8, 2023 The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research announced that a five-year experiment improved care for California’s highest-risk Medicaid patients, resulting in fewer hospitalizations and emergency room visits. (AP Photo/Ricci Pedroncelli, File)
(FOX40.COM) – Hundreds of thousands of Sutter Health patients may be at risk of having their personal information accessed by hackers after a data breach within the hospital’s systems was revealed.
Sutter Health sent out a notification on Nov. 3 that one of its vendors was affected by a ransomware attack. The vendor was her file transfer tool called MOVEit, and a security breach in it allowed an unauthorized user to extract patient information for her Sutter Health.
A company called Virgin Pulse (WellTok) is reportedly helping Sutter Health provide important notices and communications to patients and members. Based on Virgin Pulse’s findings, an estimated 845,441 of her Sutter Health patients could be affected. Although some personal information was compromised, the company confirmed that the incident did not affect social security numbers or financial information.
Sutter Health said it was first notified of the attack on Sept. 22. Virgin Pulse confirmed that it engaged third-party cybersecurity experts to remediate the breach and identify the potential impact of the vulnerability in its systems.
Virgin Pulse said its investigation revealed that an unknown user exploited a vulnerability to access MOVEit and exfiltrate data from MOVEit Transfer servers between May 30 and May 31. Masu. Weltok announced on October 24 that it had provided a final report on the investigation to Sutter Health.
All affected patients will be informed of the incident by Virgin Pulse via a mailed letter that includes available services, resources, and recommendations for patients to monitor for possible inappropriate use of their personal information. Reportedly notified.
Affected patients can also call a dedicated support line set up by Virgin Pulse at 800-628-2141.