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The Oregon Clinic suffers HIPAA email breach

Written by Arianna Etemadieh | May 24, 2018

 On May 8, 2018, The Oregon Clinic, P.C. submitted a  HIPAA Email Breach to the  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Based in Portland, Oregon, The Oregon Clinic's email breach affected  64,487 individuals’  protected health information. The Oregon Clinic is classified as a  Healthcare Provider.

According to The Oregon Clinic’s  statement:

 

What Happened? On March 9, 2018, The Oregon Clinic learned that an unauthorized third party accessed an email account. We immediately disabled the unauthorized access to the account and began an investigation to determine what had occurred and whether protected health information (PHI) may have been affected. We also engaged cybersecurity experts, including a digital forensics firm, to determine the nature and extent of the incident. On April 19, 2018, the investigation determined that PHI may have been affected. We determined that the incident was restricted to the one email account and did not affect any other aspect of the Oregon Clinic network.  What Information Was Involved? The following information may have been affected: names, dates of birth, and certain medical information. This medical information may include medical record numbers, diagnosis information, medical condition, diagnostic tests performed, prescription information, and/or health insurance information. For a small subset of patients, Social Security numbers may also have been affected.    What Are We Doing? The Oregon Clinic took the steps referenced above in response to the data security incident. We are also providing impacted patients with additional information about steps to can take to protect their personal information. Finally, we are also offering those impacted patients credit and/or identity monitoring services for 12 months at no cost through Experian.
 

HHS Wall of Shame

 

The  HHS Wall of Shame is a website under the jurisdiction of HHS that lists all HIPAA breaches reported within the last 24 months. The Wall of Shame displays breaches that are currently under investigation by the Office for Civil Rights. As part of section 13402(e)(4) of the HITECH Act, the HHS Secretary must post a list of breaches of unsecured  protected health information affecting 500 or more individuals.

 

HIPAA Breach Report

 

The  Paubox HIPAA Breach Report analyzes breaches that affected 500 or more individuals as reported in the HHS Wall of Shame.

 

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