APhA: No Credit Card Data Obtained by Hackers

At the end of May we reported that Anonymous-affiliated hackers breached the official website of the American Pharmacist Association (APhA), forcing the organization to take it offline. Now, pharmacist.com has been restored and APhA denies that patient records have been stolen.

At the time of the incident, the hackers leaked around 64 megabytes of information from the site’s databases, but they also claimed to have obtained 16,000 patient records.

The exact details of the attack have not been made public because of the ongoing investigation. However, according to a statement posted on the re-launched site, there’s nothing to indicate that the attackers have managed to gain access to sensitive information such as credit card data.

On the other hand, the organization admits that the hackers did leak email addresses, names and physical addresses, details that could be used by cybercriminals to initiate phishing campaigns with the purpose of gathering sensitive information.

Customers are advised to be on the lookout for shady-looking notifications that purport to originate from the organization, especially if they request details such as passwords, credit card data, bank account numbers, or other sensitive information.

While APhA and law enforcement continue to investigate the incident, security measures have been enhanced to prevent pharmacist.com from falling victim to future attacks.

Finally, the APhA elections, which began a few days before the breach, have not been affected in any way because the voting process takes place on a different website.

“We thank our members for their patience during this trying time,” said Thomas Menighan, APhA’s CEO.

“We understand how important pharmacist.com is to our members in their search for pharmacy information, education, resources, and networking. APhA considers any unauthorized access to be serious, and has been working nonstop to ensure the website was secured and back online in a timely manner.”