A Connecticut health system is notifying patients that their data may have been exposed after a hacker accessed an employee's email account.
Farmington-based UConn Health said it recently discovered an unauthorized party hacked the employee's account for a "short period of time" on June 14, and may have accessed and stolen emails. The account included — depending on the patient — names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, financial account numbers, medical treatments, diagnoses, medications and health insurance information.
UConn Health began mailing letters to affected individuals Aug. 13. The health system reported to HHS that 500 patients were involved (though that number is often used as a placeholder when a healthcare organization doesn't yet know the exact amount).
Hackers lately have been stealing health systems' data by breaching employee email accounts, including via phishing schemes.