Patients are getting notified by Roper St. Francis after their employees fall prey to phishing attack

The officials of Roper St. Francis Healthcare are mailing letters to the patients whose information might have been affected by the recent phishing attack.

As per their spokesman, Andy Lyons, the facility found that unauthorized access to 13 employees' email accounts may have been gained by someone between November 15, 2018, and December 1, 2018. Lyons said it was discovered after "phishing" emails were received by the Roper employees, and they clicked on a given link and then offered their credentials by believing that the requests are legitimate.

Lyons stated in a release that "the phishing attack did not affect Roper St. Francis Healthcare operations. We immediately took steps to secure the email accounts and began investigating what occurred".

A leading and famous forensic security firm was hired by Roper St. Francis. The forensic security firm determined that the email accounts of employees' contained some information, such as patients' names, health insurance information, information related to services that the employees received from the Roper St. Francis, medical record numbers, and, in a few cases, financial information as well as the Social Security numbers.

"There is no indication any patient information has been misused, and our Electronic Medical Record was not accessed," Lyons said.

As a precautionary measure, Roper St. Francis is offering complimentary identity protection and credit monitoring services to the patients whose personal information (i.e. Social Security number) got affected. In addition, Roper St. Francis is recommending all the patients to review their billing statements that they will receive from their own healthcare providers. Upon reviewing if any services were found that the patient didn't receive, then Roper St. Francis is asking to immediately contact the provider.

The notice by Roper St. Francis on its website on January 29, 2019, stated that "we began mailing letters to affected patients on January 25, 2019 and have established a dedicated call center to answer any questions patients may have". In case any patient believe that he/she was affected by this phishing incident and also do not receive any letter by Feb. 20, 2019, then he/she must call on 1-877-231-1926, between Monday to Friday (9am to 9pm, Eastern Time).

In the notice Roper St. Francis also says that "we apologize for any inconvenience or concern this incident may cause you". The officials of Roper St. Francis said that they continue to educate their staff on the email protection and further enhancing the email security.

» SPAMfighter News - 2/19/2019