Waco, Texas: "Compromised Patient Information"

Ascension Providence warns cyberattack on contractor may have compromised patient info

Christopher De Los Santos Dec 13, 2023

Ascension Providence is warning that ransomware attacks on a contractor’s networks in September might have exposed personal information of some Waco-area patients of the health care provider.

The contractor, ESO, discovered on Sept. 28 that an unauthorized third party accessed and encrypted some of its computer systems, according to statements from Ascension and ESO. The contractor immediately shut down the affected systems and secured the network. Third-party forensic experts investigated and found that some personal and medical data might have been compromised.

ESO notified Ascension on Nov. 6 of the breach, and starting this week began notifying potentially affected patients, offering support services including credit and identity theft monitoring, the ESO statement says. Patients who do not receive such a letter did not have their information affected in the network attack, the ESO statement says.

https://wacotrib.com/news/local/crime-courts/ascension-providence-warns-cyberattack-on-contractor-may-have-compromised-patient-info/article_ed316c88-99e9-11ee-9d13-2360d7b7a642.html

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Not surprisingly, here come the class action lawsuits:

Class Action Lawsuits Filed Against Ascension Contractor ESO Solutions Over Data Breach

Posted By Steve Alder on Jan 4, 2024

Class action lawsuits have started to be filed against ESO Solutions over its recently disclosed cyberattack and data breach that affected almost 2.7 million individuals. The data breach involved sensitive information such as names, contact information, and Social Security numbers and affected many of the company’s healthcare clients.

Two lawsuits – Claybo v. ESO Solutions Inc. and Essie Jones f/k/a Essie McVay v. ESO Solutions Inc. – were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas Austin Division, that allege ESO Solutions failed to implement reasonable and appropriate industry-standard security measures to ensure the privacy and confidentiality of patient data. The lawsuits also allege ESO Solutions did not properly train staff members on data security protocols, failed to detect a breach of its systems and the theft of data in a timely manner, and then failed to issue timely notifications to the affected individuals. The lawsuits also allege that the data security failures violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

As a direct result of those failures, hackers gained access to the plaintiffs’ and class members’ sensitive data and the plaintiffs and class members now face an imminent and ongoing risk of identity theft and fraud and have suffered other injuries as a result of the breach and have incurred out-of-pocket expenses.

https://www.hipaajournal.com/eso-solutions-data-breach/

It's amazing Americans trust their healthcare providers at all.

"As a reminder, the ESO breach resulted in the following confidential patient data being leaked: names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, injury types, injury dates, treatment dates, and treatment types."

https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/eso-solutions-data-breach-update-eso-6676886/

Just the tip of the iceberg, apparently.

On December 12, 2023, ESO Solutions sent out data breach letters to anyone who was affected by the recent data security incident. Initially, the facilities impacted by the ESO data breach were not known. However, more recently, HIPPAJournal posted an article noting that the following providers are reportedly affected:

Ascension Providence Hospital in Waco
Mississippi Baptist Medical Center
CaroMont Health
Merit Health Biloxi
Merit Health River Oaks
ESO EMS Agency
Forrest General Hospital
Alaska Regional Hospital
Memorial Hospital at Gulfport
Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center
Providence Alaska Medical Center
Tallahassee Memorial
Manatee Memorial Hospital
Desert View Hospital

https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/eso-solutions-data-breach-update-eso-6676886/

About the contractor known as ESO:

https://www.eso.com/about/

Thread regarding Ascension Health layoffs

Waco, Texas: "Compromised Patient Information"

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