Data for 2 million patients stolen in largest healthcare breach so far of 2022
Two million patients from nearly 60 healthcare providers were recently informed that their data was stolen after the hack of a third-party vendor, Shields Health Care Group. Shields Health provides MRI, PET/CT, and outpatient surgical services for covered entities.
The breach tally makes it the largest healthcare data breach reported so far this year.
The “suspicious activity” was discovered on the Shields network on March 28, which “may have involved data compromise.” Shields took steps to contain the incident, and an investigation was launched with support from third-party forensic specialists. Law enforcement was also notified. The investigation found that a hacker gained access to certain Shields systems for three weeks between March 7 and March 21. During the dwell time, the attacker stole “certain data” from the network. According to the notice, “although Shields identified and investigated a security alert on or around March 18, data theft was not confirmed at that time.”
