Nebraska Medicine Breached By Rogue Employee

Hospital network Nebraska Medicine has disclosed a data breach after a former employee accessed sensitive patient data – including medical records and Social Security numbers. The Nebraska Medicine network encompasses Nebraska’s largest hospital, Nebraska Medical Center, as well as other locations like Bellevue Medical Center. On Oct. 1, during an audit of its electronic medical record system, Nebraska Medicine discovered that an employee had accessed patient records “outside of the employee’s job responsibilities.” The employee was terminated the next day. “Once Nebraska Medicine became aware of the incident, our staff took action to investigate, prevent further improper access and to notify affected patients,” a spokesperson told Threatpost. After further investigation, the company determined that the unauthorized access occurred between July 11, 2018 and Oct. 1, 2019, and that the employee was able to view some patients’ medical records. The information that was viewed may have included patients’ demographic information (such as name, address, date of birth, medical record number, Social Security number, license number); and clinical information, such as physician notes, laboratory results or imaging data. Nebraska Medicine did not comment on how many patients were affected. Despite stressing that it has “no reason to believe the information accessed has been or will be misused,” the healthcare provider is offering free credit monitoring for a year for patients whose…

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