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Last two years have been loaded with incidents of data breach on the healthcare sector. However, AMCA data breach is one of the worst incidents.
Zoll medical, Uconn Health, Columbia Surgical, Oregon Department of Human Services, Dominion National and several other organizations belonging to the health industry have become the victim of major data breaches.
AMCA data breach can be considered as the biggest data breach on the healthcare industry for the year 2019 that has affected 25 million patients.
Apparently, the data breach occurred for a period of seven months from August 2018 to March 2019.
The AMCA data breach has not only harmed billing vendor but also, organizations that have been availing to its services.
Records of the major organizations who were the victim of the breach include:
- Quest diagnostics with 12 million breached patient records
- Labcorp with 7.7 million breached patient records
- Clinical Pathology Laboratories with 2.2 million breached patient records
Other affected institutes include:
- Penobscot Community Health Center,
- Austin Pathology Associates,
- Natera,
- American Esoteric Laboratories,
- CBLPath,
- South Texas Dermatopathology,
- Seacoast Pathology,
- Arizona Dermatopathology and
- Laboratory of Dermatopathology ADX
The AMCA data breach was revealed when two of the worst affected organizations (Quest Diagnostics and Labcorp) filed 8-K forms with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Why is AMCA data breach so concerning?
Every now and then, new names are adding up to the list. BioReference Laboratories with over 422,000 and CareCentrix with half a million breached patient records are classic examples of this. This data breach has damaged AMCA to the extent that it has forced the billing agency to file for bankruptcy protection.
What are the preventive measures for data breach?
We should not ignore the massive AMCA data breach and work on adapting a proactive approach. This includes gaining awareness on such cyber attacks.
It is also necessary to work on technologies that increase human defensive capabilities is an extremely effective approach.
