Cardiovascular Consultants Data Breach Affects 484,000 Individuals
Cardiovascular Consultants Ltd., an Arizona-based healthcare provider with offices in Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Glendale, has recently reported a data breach to the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights that involved the protected health information of 484,000 individuals.
On September 29, 2023, Cardiovascular Consultants identified suspicious activity within its computer systems and initialed its incident response and recovery procedures. An investigation was launched and a third-party cybersecurity company was engaged to assist with the investigation, which revealed unauthorized individuals had access to its systems on or before September 27, 2023.
Cardiovascular Consultants has now confirmed that the hackers exfiltrated files containing sensitive data and used ransomware to encrypt files on the network. Those files were reviewed and found to contain patient data such as names, mailing addresses, birth dates, emergency contact information, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, state ID numbers, insurance policy and guarantor information, diagnosis and treatment information, and other information from medical or billing records.
The data of account guarantors was also stored on the compromised parts of the network, including names, mailing addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, and email addresses, and also information about insurance policy holder/subscribers such as names, mailing addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, insurance policy information, and, in some cases, Social Security numbers.
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Affected individuals were notified about the breach on December 2, 2023, and 24 months of complimentary credit monitoring, identity theft protection, and fraud resolution services have been offered to the affected individuals. Cardiovascular Consultants has confirmed that additional security measures have been implemented to improve its defenses against cyberattacks in the future.
