67,000 patient records exposed in California hospital ransomware attack: 5 details

An October ransomware attack at Sonoma Valley Hospital in California exposed tens of thousands of patient records, the hospital notified its patients last week.

Five details:

1. Hackers infiltrated the hospital's IT systems, which were shut down to contain the damage. Sonoma Valley partnered with an outside IT company and forensic experts to restore the IT systems.

2. The hospital did not pay the ransom, according to a Dec. 10 notice on the hospital's website. A hospital investigation found that some patient information had been compromised, including health claims sent electronically to insurers.

3. Exposed information included patient names, birth dates, addresses and diagnosis and procedure codes. The breach also exposed some imaging records of patients whose services resulted in a grievance, appeal or quality review.

4. The information of about 67,000 patients, who had received services dating to 2009, had information exposed in the attack, according to a report in the Sonoma Index-Tribune.

5. There is no evidence any exposed patient information has been misused, the hospital said.

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