Report: Hackers steal personal information of 4.5 million Community Health Systems' patients

NEW YORK — Community Health Systems on Monday announced that hackers recently broke into its computers and stole data on 4.5 million patients, according to a CNN report. 

 

According to the report, the names, social security numbers, physical addresses, birthdays and telephone numbers of some 4.5 million patients who had been treated in the last five years were all exposed in the cyberattack. 

 

"The company's hospitals operate in 28 states but have their most significant presence in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas," CNN reported. "[Community Health Systems] have determined the hackers were in China and used high-end, sophisticated malware to launch the attacks sometime in April and June this year."

 

"Since first learning of this attack, [Community Health Systems] has worked closely with federal law enforcement authorities in connection with their investigation and possible prosecution of those determined to be responsible for this attack," the company stated in an SEC filing Monday. "The company has been informed by federal authorities and Mandiant that this intruder has typically sought valuable intellectual property, such as medical device and equipment development data. However, in this instance the data transferred was non-medical patient identification data related to the company’s physician practice operations and affected approximately 4.5 million individuals who, in the last five years, were referred for or received services from physicians affiliated with the [Community Health Systems]."

 

Community Health Systems is notifying the patients and will be offering identity theft protection services to individuals affected by this attack.