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Tampa General Hospital announced on Wednesday evening that cybercriminals breached its network and stole files containing the personal health information (PHI) of about 1.2 million patients.
Located on Davis Island in Tampa, Florida, Tampa General Hospital (TGH) is a not-for-profit, tertiary, research and academic medical institution serving western Florida and the broader Tampa Bay area with 1,041 beds.
On May 31, the hospital detected “unusual activity” on its computer systems, which revealed the information theft. The compromised systems were promptly taken offline to prevent further unauthorized access and a third-party digital forensics firm was hired to investigate the incident and determine the nature and the extent of the attack.
The investigation revealed that unauthorized individuals gained access to the network for three weeks between May 12 and May 30, 2023, during which time they exfiltrated data containing patient information.
What Type of Data Was Involved?
The threat actors gained access to the following data:
- Names
- Phone numbers
- Addresses
- Dates of birth
- Social Security numbers
- Medical record numbers
- Patient account number
- Health insurance information
- Dates of service and/or limited treatment information used by TGH for its business operations.
However, they could not access Tampa General Hospital’s electronic medical record system.
Was It Ransomware?
According to Tampa General Hospital, this was an attempted ransomware attack, and while data theft occurred, its security systems prevented files from being encrypted.
Additional technical security measures have now been introduced to protect its systems and prevent further data breaches, and network monitoring has been enhanced to ensure that any future security breaches are caught quickly.
Fortunately, TGH’s monitoring systems and experienced technology professionals effectively prevented encryption, which would have significantly interrupted the hospital’s ability to provide care for patients. (…) The hospital is continuously updating and hardening systems to help prevent events such as this from occurring and has implemented additional defensive tools and increased monitoring.
TGH reported the incident to the FBI and supplied information to aid in the investigation of the criminal group responsible.
As per HIPAA Journal, the hospital will send notice letters to individuals whose information may have been implicated in this event, and will also offer free credit monitoring and identity theft prevention services to anyone whose Social Security numbers were involved.
The official notice published by Tampa General Hospital is available here.
Florida is one of 20 states affected by the incident, which comes less than two weeks after HCA Healthcare announced that data on around 11 million of its patients had been stolen and shared on an internet forum.
How to Prevent Ransomware?
You can find more in-depth information about this topic in our other articles, where we explain: how ransomware spreads, how to mitigate it, how to prevent ransomware and how to build a successful cybersecurity strategy.
From our experience, adopting multiple layers of protection is the best approach to stopping ransomware before it does any damage. A ransomware encryption tool, firewall, a good anti-virus software, Domain Name System (DNS) filtering, email protection, automated patching, access controls, and so on are all examples of such measures.
If you need more advice on this subject, get in touch with our consultants and book a dedicated session.
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Madalina, a seasoned digital content creator at Heimdal®, blends her passion for cybersecurity with an 8-year background in PR & CSR consultancy. Skilled in making complex cyber topics accessible, she bridges the gap between cyber experts and the wider audience with finesse.
