Renown announces data breach involving patient health information
RENO, Nev. (News 4 & Fox 11) — Renown announced Friday a data breach involving health information of patients residing in Nevada and neighboring states.
Officials say in the first week of April, Elekta’s first-generation cloud-based storage system experienced a data breach.
Following the breach, Elekta hired a forensic investigator to launch an investigation to determine the nature and scope of the suspicious activity.
On April 22, the forensic investigation confirmed that there was access to protected health information(PHI) as a result of the breach.
Officials say the following types of PHI belonging to Renown Health patients residing in Nevada or neighboring states may have been involved in the incident:
- full name
- social security number
- address
- date of birth
- height
- weight
- medical diagnosis
- medical treatment details
- appointment confirmations
- other information
No financial account, credit card, or debit card information was involved in this incident.
The system remains shut down to protect patient and customer information and to prevent any further access to Elekta’s system.
A statement in the release sent by Renown Health says,
We take this incident and the security of patient information seriously. Upon learning of this incident, Elekta launched an in-depth investigation of the incident by engaging a third-party forensic investigator and took steps to prevent any further access to its systems. Elekta also promptly notified its customers, including us, of the incident. Immediately after we were notified of the incident, we began working with Elekta to better understand the nature and scope of the incident and coordinate our efforts to find alternate ways to continue treating patients. We will continue working with Elekta to ensure our patients continue to receive treatment, further secure the patient information, and notify regulatory authorities as required.
Elekta is also offering complimentary access to identity monitoring, fraud consultation and identity theft restoration services.
