Tift Regional Health System is notifying patients about an August data breach that may have compromised the protected health information of 500 patients.
On Aug. 16 the Tifton, Ga.-based health system discovered suspicious activity on some of its systems and began disabling the network in order to secure and restore the systems, according to an Oct. 14 press release from Tift.
An investigation into the incident determined that an unauthorized user had gained access to and may have copied files from the systems between Aug. 11 and Aug. 17.
The files contained patient information including Social Security numbers, patient identification numbers, driver's license numbers, medical information, treatment information, diagnosis information, health insurance information and dates of birth.
Tift Regional is working on notifying all affected individuals and is reviewing its cybersecurity procedures in order to prevent a breach in the future.