Another data breach has happened. A recent investigation revealed that hackers accessed personal information, including names, social security numbers, addresses, and member ID and plan ID numbers. The hackers were also able to access the personal information of about 1.7 million Oregon Health Plan (OHP) members, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) said last Wednesday.
Performance Health Technology (PH Tech) is a private company that works for health care providers. It said thay hackers broke into the system through a security vulnerability in Progress MOVEit software. The Portland Medium on this same software that was involved in a global cyberattack back in June. That one impacted the Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicle Services and the Umpqua Bank.
The issue was made known to PH Tech on June 2. It immediately took safety measures. It moved their system offline. An investigation was put into motion. Their investigation revealed that hackers accessed personal information, including names, date of birth, social security numbers, addresses, and member ID and plan ID numbers. The hackers did view some health information related to enrollment and claims files.
Information released about the data breach shows that the company believes the hack happened on May 30. On Fathers Day June 16, the organization found out that some of their customers’ data was impacted. PH Tech said it began alerting customers on the same day, although OHA said PH Tech started sending letter notifications on July 31.
PH Tech said the data breach didn’t compromise state systems. The OHA is advising OHP members to take steps to protect their personal information. The agency provided the following tips below:
* Watch for additional information from PH in the mail and follow instructions to activate 12 months of free identity theft protection. OHP members will be contacted by regular first-class mail, not by phone or email.
* Request a free credit report. OHP members have the right to request one free copy of their credit report from each of the three major consumer reporting companies (Equifax, TransUnion and Experian) every year. OHP members may be able to request reports from one company every few months throughout the year. Credit reports and monitoring can help people identify signs of identity theft and stop thieves from using information for fraudulent purposes.
“We’re urging OHP members to activate credit monitoring as a precaution,” said Dave Baden, interim director at OHA. “It’s disheartening that bad actors are looking to exploit people in our state and that their actions create a burden for others, who have more than enough to manage already. However, there are important steps that OHP members can take to further protect their data.”
Contact PH TECH for assistance at 888-498-1602 or by going to https://response.idx.us/PHTECH for more information. OHP members can also receive free ID theft recovery services from PH Tech, according to the OHA.
