Cancer research center hit by data breach

Cancer research center Fred Hutchinson Cancer, formerly known as Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, reported an unauthorized user gained temporary access to an employee’s email account, resulting in a data breach.

The account held specific persons’:

The report states that there is no evidence of identity theft or fraud due to the cyber security incident at this time.

However, as a precaution, the center has begun directly notifying potentially implicated persons via physical mail, according to the announcement.

The center is taking efforts to help prevent a repeat of this issue, including examining its technical controls, rules, and processes.

Individuals should remain attentive to protect themselves against potential fraud and/or identity theft by reading their account statements, regularly monitoring their credit reports, and notifying their financial institutions if a strange activity is noticed, among other things.

The center also recommends that individuals should also report any fraudulent activity or possible identity theft to appropriate law enforcement agencies, such as the police and their attorney general’s office.

This is not an isolated case of a cyberattack on the healthcare institution. According to a report published on June 7, a major hacker attack on a hospital in Tokushima Prefecture occurred after a firm disabled anti-virus software on the hospital's computers.