ZOLL Medical notifying 1,004,443 patients of data breach — HIPAA
A number of large recent breaches have involved trackers or analytics, but not all large breaches these days involve trackers. ZOLL Medical is notifying 1,004,443 patients whose protected health information (PHI) may have been compromised in a recent data security incident that didn’t involve pixels or trackers at all.
According to ZOLL’s notification, the Massachusetts-headquartered firm’s security team first detected unusual activity on their internal network on January 28. They responded promptly to mitigate the incident and investigate it with the help of third-party cybersecurity experts.
The investigation indicated that PHI may have been affected on or about February 2, 2023.
Their notification, a copy of which was seen by DataBreaches, does not indicate whether malware had been deployed and whether there was any ransom demand. DataBreaches sent an email inquiry to ZOLL seeking clarification as to whether there was any encryption involved, whether data was exfiltrated, and whether there was any ransom demand or note. No reply was immediately provided.
The types of PHI involved included patients’ addresses, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers. ZOLL’s notification letter stated, “It may also be inferred that you used or were considered for use of a ZOLL product.”
In a statement provided to BusinessWire, however, ZOLL was a bit more specific, writing that the PHI “may have included some individuals’ names, addresses, dates of birth, some Social Security numbers and information that may allow one to infer that the individual used or was considered for use of the ZOLL LifeVest® wearable cardioverter defibrillator (WCD).”
ZOLL is offering those affected complimentary access to Experian IdentityWorksSM for 24 months. They say they have no indication of any misuse of the patients’ information.
As of publication, no ransomware group appears to be claiming any responsibility for this incident. This post will be updated when ZOLL responds to direct questions about whether ransomware and/or any ransom demand was involved.
