Digital Forensics Dispatch

Stolen Health Data Affects Almost 200,000 Patients

September 29, 2022

Jessica Davis, a writer for SC Magazine, published an article about Physician’s Business Office falling victim to data theft.

Physician’s Business Office (PBO) is a medical practice management and an administrative service for healthcare providers based in West Virginia.

In April 2022, Physician’s Business Office noticed abnormal network activity and took action right away. They notified an outside digital forensics and incident response firm to help them in narrowing down exactly what happened to their network.

The digital forensics firm found that the network was hacked and data on the network was accessed and potentially taken without any authorization.

PBO did not notify their patients until three months later and claimed they had to wait so long because they were coordinating with providers and working “to collect current mailing addresses for all potentially impacted individuals.”

PBO also stated, “The stolen data could include patient names, social security numbers, dates of birth, driver’s licenses, treatments, diagnoses, contact details, disability codes, prescription information, and health insurance account details.” They also added that patients will receive free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services.

Three months after the data theft incident occurred, Physician’s Business Office notified 196,573 patients that their personal data and protected health information could have been stolen during the network breach.

Thankfully, PBO has put several measures into place to protect their system, patient information, and has reduced the chance of a breach happening again.

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