Healthcare group Ascension discloses second cyberattack on patients' data

It's more bad news from Ascension Health which is informing some of its patients, potentially for the second time in the space of a year, that their medical data was compromised during a major cyberattack. The private medical services provider said one of its former business partners, with which the company shared some patient medical data, was ransacked by criminals that exploited a vulnerability in some third-party software. This all happened back on December 5, according to the letter being sent to affected individuals. The biz added the internal investigation into the matter was concluded on January 21. Ascension said the medical data involved was "inadvertently disclosed" to a former business partner who was targeted in an attack on the unspecified software. The types of data believed to be stolen during the attack include: Names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, races, genders, and Social Security numbers (SSN). Clinical data was also collected in some cases, including: Information related to inpatient visits, such as the place of service; physician name, admission and discharge dates; diagnosis and billing codes; medical record number; and insurance company name. The org said the amount of data and the different data points involved will be different for each affected individual. Also typical of these cases, victims have been offered two years' worth of credit monitoring via Kroll. Ascension said it's improving systems, and offered an apology....