This content was created by Robert Siciliano. This content was uploaded by Robert Siciliano. This is a YouTube news segment titled "Partners Healthcare Hacked via Phishing" (May 1, 2015). It is a Boston-area news report about a phishing-related data breach at Partners HealthCare, including Brigham and Women's Hospital, that may have exposed personal data for thousands (estimates cited around 3,300 at Brigham and potentially across five institutions). Participants include news anchors/interviewers and reporter Greg Whalen (live from the hospital). The report quotes Boston-based internet security expert Robert Siciliano assessing the impact and describing risks (names, addresses, DOB, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, and possibly clinical information). The segment also references a Partners statement and a patient notification phone number (877-237-9502).
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Elsewhere tonight, there has been a data breach at Partners HealthCare in New England. That breach could compromise personal information for thousands of people.
And this happened after a simple click of the computer mouse. Our Greg Whalen is live at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston with more. Greg?
Yeah, Christy, this is serious, and there is an estimate that as many as 3,300 people may have been affected by this here at Brigham and Women's Hospital and at the other institutions, as many as 5 institutions in the Partners chain. This is according to a Partners statement. Now it dates back, according to the hospitals, to November 25th, when employees— some employees— opened a so-called phishing letter. That's, uh, well known to cyber experts, uh, and well known to internet security experts, and we know about it. When you open up something that looks like a legitimate inquiry from a company, it turns out to be something in which the hackers get access to your information. Among the things they may have gotten: names, addresses, dates of birth, telephone numbers, and in some instances This is very serious— Social Security numbers, and they may have even gotten some clinical information— how you were diagnosed, what your treatment was. We asked Boston-based internet security expert Robert Siciliano to assess the impact for us.
So any breach that contains sensitive personal information means that the victims themselves are at risk for the rest of their lives. When your Social Security number is compromised, that's essentially the key to the kingdom. It's your national identifier that can be used to open up new lines of credit going forward. So criminals can pose as you for the rest of your life to get credit cards, bank account numbers, and including utilities and mobile phones and so forth.
That would be real bad news. But we have this statement that reads in part from Partners. It says, to date, we have no evidence that any patient information in the emails has been misused. However, as a precaution, we began mailing letters to affected patients on April 30th, 2015, telling them what they should do. And if you don't get one of those letters and you think you were affected, they have given us A phone number you can call as well. It is 877-237-9502. 877-237-9502 if you think you may have been affected by this massive, seemingly massive security breach. We're live in Boston, Greg Whalen, NECN.
