Data Breach at New Hampshire Radiology Practice Affects 231,400 Patients

Seacoast Radiology, a radiology practice from Rochester, NH, has notified around 231,400 patients earlier this week that their billing information might have been exposed following a security breach on one of its servers.

The company discovered the unauthorized access to the computer system on November 12, 2010, and contracted third party computer forensics experts to perform an independent investigation.

Data contained on this server included names, addresses, Social Security numbers, date of birth, medical procedure codes, diagnosis codes and billing information.

Furthermore, information about individuals serving as insurance guarantors for patients was also stored on the compromised server.

The company does not specify what it means by billing information, but stresses that credit card data and banking details were not exposed.

Neither were patient radiology reports and radiographic images, which are stored on a different system.

Seacoast says it didn't report the data breach earlier because "with any such event, it takes time to gather the relevant information, identify the affected individuals, hold the necessary internal discussions and make the appropriate decisions."

The investigators concluded that information misuse is unlikely, but concerned individuals are advised to place a free fraud alert on their credit file.

A fraud alert required credit issuers to perform more extensive checks before issuing credit in a person's name. Each of the three credit reporting bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, offer one free 90-day fraud alert per year.

Timing them properly can get someone this type of free credit protection for 9 months. People can also order one free credit report per year from each of the credit reporting bureaus.

According to information obtained by DOTmed News, the hackers were most likely from Scandinavia and were looking to run a server for the popular "Call of Duty: Black Ops" game.