East Tennessee Children’s Hospital
Your Personal Info Could Be
Exposed Online After
This Hospital Breach
Breach Description
Data Breach at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital
East Tennessee Children’s Hospital (ETCH), based in Knoxville, Tennessee, experienced a significant data breach in March 2022. The breach led to the exposure of sensitive patient information, affecting hundreds of thousands of individuals.
Breach Details
The cyberattack occurred between March 11 and March 14, 2022, and was discovered on April 19, 2022. The compromised data included names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, medical history information, and other personal identifiers[5]. The breach caused several weeks of care disruptions, with services such as email and X-ray being taken offline[6].
Legal and Financial Repercussions
ETCH agreed to pay $1.55 million to settle claims that it failed to protect patient information adequately. The settlement benefits individuals whose private information was compromised due to the breach. Class members who experienced losses due to fraud or identity theft can receive up to $5,000 in compensation[1][2][3].
Settlement Details
Under the terms of the settlement, class members can claim up to $500 for ordinary data breach losses, such as professional fees, credit expenses, communication charges, travel costs, and lost time. Those who suffered extraordinary losses due to fraud or identity theft following the breach are eligible for additional compensation. The deadline for submitting a claim is February 17, 2024[2][3].
Hospital’s Response
In response to the breach, ETCH has taken steps to enhance the security of its systems. The hospital provided affected individuals with 12 months of credit monitoring services through IDX, which includes single bureau credit monitoring, Cyberscan (dark web monitoring), and identity theft insurance[5]. ETCH has not admitted any wrongdoing but has taken these measures to resolve the class action lawsuit[2][3].
Impact on Patients
The breach has understandably caused concern among affected families, with some expressing worry about the long-term implications of identity theft for their children[9]. ETCH has offered identity monitoring services and has encouraged those affected to review the information provided in their notification letters and to contact their dedicated helpline for assistance[9].
Conclusion
The data breach at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital has had significant consequences, leading to a multimillion-dollar settlement and raising concerns about data security in healthcare institutions. Affected individuals are encouraged to file a claim by the deadline and to take advantage of the credit monitoring services offered to mitigate potential risks associated with the breach.
Citations:
- https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/cybersecurity/tennessee-hospital-pays-1-5m-to-resolve-data-breach-lawsuit.html
- https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/closed-settlements/east-tennessee-childrens-hospital-etch-data-breach-1-55m-class-action-settlement/
- https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/open-lawsuit-settlements/east-tennessee-childrens-hospital-etch-data-breach-1-55m-class-action-settlement/
- https://www.etchdatasettlement.com
- https://apps.web.maine.gov/online/aeviewer/ME/40/46d9b313-945c-45ac-a319-604a44439aa8.shtml
- https://healthitsecurity.com/news/east-tennessee-childrens-hospital-experiencing-security-issue
- https://www.wate.com/news/knox-county-news/lawsuit-over-east-tennessee-childrens-hospital-data-breach-dropped/
- https://www.scmagazine.com/analysis/patient-data-stolen-ahead-of-east-tennessee-childrens-hospital-attack-outage
- https://www.wbir.com/article/news/health/families-notified-about-east-tennessee-childrens-hospital-data-leak/51-96b1af67-1770-482b-9a07-6f6a5fdb527d
- https://www.govinfosecurity.com/tennessee-pediatric-hospital-responding-to-cyber-incident-a-18730
- https://www.etchdatasettlement.com/home/6659/DocumentHandler?docPath=%2FDocuments%2FBlank_v_ETCH_Long_Form_Notice_v5_Clean_FINAL_.pdf
- https://www.wvlt.tv/2022/03/16/cybersecurity-expert-weighs-east-tennessee-childrens-hospital-attack/
- https://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/east-tennessee-childrens-hospital-facing-data-leak-lawsuit/51-292eabca-14ad-4b18-9894-1a1e01398ac4
- https://www.etch.com/about-us/news/2022/east-tennessee-childrens-hospital-statement-on-security-issue/
- https://www.wate.com/news/local-news/east-tennessee-childrens-hospital-data-breach-class-action-lawsuit/