Healthcare appears to be an attacker's favorite target this year. In just four months, we have already seen some of the biggest data breaches in the sector. Recently, news about the Blue Shield of a California data breaches has been revealed, leaking 4.7 million personal data.
But if that's not enough, Yale New Haven Health, Connecticut's biggest healthcare system, has revealed that data breaches have affected more than 5.5 million people.
The leaked information included patient name, date of birth, mail and email address, telephone number, and more.
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Hacker illustration at work. (Kurt “Cyberguy” Knutsson)
What you need to know
According to a legally mandatory disclosure with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Yale New Haven Health experienced a cyberattack on March 8, allowing malicious hackers to obtain personalized information about patients and copies of some healthcare-related data.
Yale New Haven Health is a non-profit healthcare system based in New Haven, Connecticut. This includes a network of outpatient facilities and multispecialist centers in five acute care hospitals, a medical fund, Connecticut, New York and Rhode Island.
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In a notification posted to its website, the Healthcare System said that stolen data may vary from person to person, but may include name, date of birth, postal and email address, telephone number, race and ethnic information, Social Security number, patient type and medical record number. The number of affected individuals reportedly may still change as the survey continues. Importantly, the electronic medical record system and treatment information were not accessed and did not involve financial accounts, payments, or employee HR information.
This is not the first time the healthcare system has been at a cybercriminal crossing. In recent years, attacks on institutions such as UnitedHealth and Ascension Health have led to months of operational disruption, large financial costs and long-term investigations.
Illustration of a doctor looking at telephone data. (Kurt “Cyberguy” Knutsson)
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What Yale New Haven Health is doing
Yale New Haven Health has brought cybersecurity company Mandiant to help with the investigation, saying that prompt response will help contain the incident and prevent disruption in patient care. The organization has noted that it regularly updates and strengthens its systems to protect sensitive data and continues its efforts. Notification letters begin to go out to affected individuals on April 14th, providing free credit surveillance and identity theft protection services to those whose Social Security numbers have been breached.
This violation can have serious consequences for those affected. Stolen data contains highly sensitive information that can be used for identity theft, financial fraud, phishing attacks, or targeted fraud. Healthcare data is especially valuable on the black market. This is because it can be used for a long period of time without being easily detected. Even if Social Security numbers and medical information are not immediately misused, the long-term risks for affected individuals remain important.
We contacted Yale New Haven Health (YNHHS), and a health system spokesman said in part.
“We are responsible for protecting patient information incredibly seriously. We regret any concerns that this incident may have caused. We are continuing to update and strengthen our systems to protect the data we maintain and prevent this incident from happening, excluding 9am and 9pm Eastern time, major US public holidays.”
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Medical employee working on a laptop. (Kurt “Cyberguy” Knutsson)
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Five Ways to Stay Safe from Insurance Data Breach
If your information is part of a Yale New Haven health breach or similar breach, it is worth taking some steps to protect yourself.
1. Considering identity theft protection services: As Yale New Haven's health data exposed personal and financial information, it is important to stay proactive in dealing with identity theft. Identity Theft Protection Services provide continuous monitoring of your credit report, social security number, and even the dark web to detect if your information is misused. These services will send real-time alerts about suspicious activities, such as new credit inquiries or attempts to open a name account, and help you act quickly before serious damage occurs. Beyond surveillance, many identity theft protection companies provide dedicated recovery specialists to help resolve fraud issues, challenge fraudulent fees and restore identity if it is breached. Check out my tips and best choices on how to protect yourself from identity theft.
2. Use Personal Data Deletion Services: Yale New Haven Health Data Breaches will leak a lot of information about you, and this can all reach the public domain.
One positive step is to consider personal data deletion services that specialize in continuously monitoring and deleting information from a variety of online databases and websites. Although there is no service that promises to delete all data from the internet, deleting a deletion service is great if you want to constantly monitor and automate the process of continuously deleting information from hundreds of sites over a long period of time. Please see the top picks for data deletion services.
3. Have powerful antivirus software: Yale New Haven Health Hackers has people's email addresses and full names. This makes it easy to send phishing links that install malware and steal all your data. These messages are designed to socially catch them, and it is almost impossible to catch them without caution. But you are not without defense.
The best way to protect yourself from malicious links to install malware is to install powerful antivirus software on all your devices, as it may access your personal information. This protection can also warn you that it will phish email and ransomware fraud and keep your personal information and digital assets safe. Get the best 2025 Antivirus Protection Winners picks for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices
4. Enable 2-Factor Authentication: The password was not part of the data breach, but two-factor Authentication (2FA) must be enabled. An additional layer of security is provided for all your critical accounts, including email, banking, and social media. 2FA requires you to provide a second information, such as the password when you log in, as well as the code sent to the phone. This makes it much more difficult for hackers to access their accounts even if they have a password. Enabling 2FA significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized access and protects sensitive data.
5. Beware of mailbox communication: Bad actors may also try to scam you with snail emails. Data leaks allow access to addresses. They may use themes that require urgent attention, such as impersonating people or brands you know, missing delivery, account suspension, security alerts, etc.
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Important points of cart
Yale New Haven has worked with security experts to contain violations and notify affected people, but it is troubling that hackers have access to data from 5.5 million individuals before organizations detect an intrusion. The incident highlights deeper issues and highlights gaps in security infrastructure that many healthcare providers have yet to properly address.
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