U.S Department of Public Health Exposes 1.3 Million Records In Data Breach

A new report suggests that hackers managed to access an American government server for the Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) in Montana. The data breach means that the sensitive personal data of 1.3 million individuals was exposed to the hackers. The details that were accessed included names, addresses, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers. Furthermore, there was information relating to health assessments, diagnoses, treatment, health condition, prescriptions, and insurance of certain individuals.

The initial findings suggest that it isn’t possible to determine if data was directly removed from the server but a breach did occur. The server was shut down a week after an investigation into suspicious activity started. Officials from the government of Montana have stated that all affected parties will be notified of the breach and offered credit monitoring and identity protection insurance in order to contain the damage. The security of the DPHHS servers has now been upgraded but it is clearly too little, too late for those affected by it.

Source: Softpedia

Image #1 courtesy of blog.credit.com, image #2 courtesy of U.S DPHHS