Phishing Attack at Georgia Health System May Have Exposed 400K Patients’ Data

Augusta University Health System, based in Augusta, Georgia, has reported that a phishing attack on email accounts that occurred last fall may have led to the unauthorized access of protected health information (PHI) of approximately 417,000 individuals.

In a notice posted on its website, Augusta University officials said the organization was targeted by a series of fraudulent emails on Sept. 10-11, 2017. “These sophisticated phishing emails solicited usernames and passwords, giving attackers access to a small number of internal email accounts,” officials said.

A second phishing attack occurred July 11, 2018, and appears to be smaller in scope, Augusta University President Brooks Keel, Ph.D., wrote in a separate message.

Augusta University officials said that, upon recognizing the nature of the attack, security leaders took action to stop the intrusion, including disabling the impacted email accounts, requiring password changes for the compromised accounts, and maintaining heightened monitoring of the accounts to ensure that no other suspicious activity was taking place.

On July 31, 2018, investigators determined that email accounts accessed earlier by an unauthorized user may have given them access to the personal and PHI of approximately 417,000 individuals.

While the investigation verified that personal information was contained in compromised email accounts, no misuse of information has been reported at this time, Keel wrote in his message.

In some cases, patient information that may have been contained in compromised email accounts included patient names and one or more of the following: addresses, dates of birth, medical record numbers, medical information, treatment information, surgical information, diagnoses, lab results, medications, dates of service and/or insurance information.

For a small percentage, information that may have been viewed included a Social Security number and/or driver’s license number, organization officials said.

Keel also wrote that IT staff reacted quickly to contain the July 11, 2018, attack. “The number of email accounts involved in this attack is fewer than those in the September attack. The investigation into the consequences of that attack is still underway,” Keel wrote.

 In response to the incident, the organization has taken or will be promptly initiating several actions to protect against future incidents, Keel stated. Organization leadership created a new position of vice president for audit, compliance, ethics and risk management to bring “fresh leadership and direction to compliance functions.”

The organization also is implementing multifactor authentication for off-campus email and system access, reviewing and adopting solutions to limit email retention, and leadership is taking steps to implement a policy banning PHI in email communications.

In addition, Augusta University officials said the organization is employing software to screen emails for PHI or personally identifiable information (PII) to prevent them from sending, increasing employee training in preventing security breaches, and enhancing compliance-related policies and procedures.

Augusta University will offer free credit monitoring services for one year to individuals whose Social Security number was included in the compromised email accounts.