HCA Healthcare patient data stolen and for sale by hackers

Potentially tens of millions of personal information HCA As of earlier this week, healthcare patients have been stolen and are currently available for sale on data breach forums.

HCA is one of the largest companies in the United States admit Violations earlier today. In a news release, it warned patients that important personal information had been compromised, including their full name, city and when and where they last saw a healthcare provider.

Shares of the healthcare giant closed up more than 1.4% on Monday and were flat in after-hours trading.

The provider claimed to disclose no clinical information.

But DataBreaches.net report On Monday, the unnamed hacking group provided them with a set of sample data on patients’ “low-risk” lung cancer assessments, which would apparently undercut the HCA’s assessment that no critical or protected health information was compromised.

The hack affected patients in nearly two dozen states, including dozens of institutions in Florida and Texas. New Zealand-based Emsisoft analyst Brett Callow flagged the data sale on Twitter.

“This may be one of the largest healthcare-related breaches of the year, and one of the largest ever. Still, despite affecting millions, it may not be as significant as other breaches, according to the HCA statement. Harmful, it doesn’t appear to affect diagnostics or other medical information,” Callow told CNBC.

“However, the hackers claimed to have ‘a health diagnostic email corresponding to the client ID,'” Callow noted.

Patient data breaches are not uncommon, but their scope and impact can vary. HCA’s breach apparently did not include vital medical records, and the company said the leaked data originated from an “external storage location dedicated to automatically formatting emails.”