Winkler Hospital announces incident connected to email breach

The county hospital recently notified patients of a breach tied to the unauthorized access of an email account.

What happened

Winkler Memorial Hospital in Winkler, Texas, recently notified the Department of Health and Human Services of a data breach impacting 637 individuals. Winkler notified the HHS on June 17th, citing the incident as an “unauthorized access/disclosure” of their email. 

On the same day, Winkler posted a notice on their website. Although the information varied by individual, impacted data may have included: names, ages, dates of birth, dates of service, diagnoses, encounter numbers, genders, insurance information and authorization, medical record numbers, race, social security numbers, status at discharge, visitor identification number, and zip code. 

Going deeper

In their notice, Winkler said that around April 22nd, 2025, Winkler County “became aware that a former employee had transferred hospital records to his personal email account.” Once Winkler realized the incident had taken place, the county began an investigation into the nature of the document transfer, notified its IT department, and retained legal counsel. 

The investigation revealed that the transfer took place around April 11th, 2025. The investigation concluded on June 11th. 

The big picture

The incident would constitute an “insider threat,” which takes place when someone in a hospital decides to steal or leak protected health information. In this case, the former employee may have been disgruntled or seeking to sell the data for monetary gain. 

While companies should only hire employees they trust, insider threats can be difficult to predict. In this case, Winkler discovered and reacted to the incident quickly, but the organization should consider how it can prevent an incident like this from occurring in the future. 

FAQs

Why do small organizations get targeted in cyberattacks? 

Small organizations are often targeted in crimes of opportunity, meaning that if a hacker believes they can easily infiltrate the organization, they will try to. Although these breaches are smaller in scale, they can still yield hefty payouts to attackers who sell the data on the dark web. While it’s not uncommon for large organizations to be specifically targeted, many breaches are random. 

Is email a common vector for attack?   

Yes, unfortunately, email is still a common vector for attack because many organizations do not have high security safeguards. In 2024, it was estimated that up to 91% of cyber attacks began with a phishing email. 

How can insider threats be prevented?

Insider threats can be prevented by properly training employees, including information on penalties for committing crimes related to releasing protected health information. All devices from former employees should be monitored and returned. Organizations should also have a clear process for reporting insider threats discovered by other employees.