Albany clinic discloses data breach affecting over 200K people

A medical care institution in New York State exposed the names and Social Security numbers of over 200,000 patients and employees.

Albany ENT & Allergy Services (AENT) is a practice in Albany, New York, focusing on ear, nose, throat, and neck disorders, as well as allergy testing and immunotherapy.

Information that AENT has provided to the Maine Attorney General shows that the data breach impacted over 224,000 people.

The practice said it became aware of suspicious activity on its computer network on March 27th.

“Through its investigation, AENT determined that, between March 23rd, 2023 and April 4th, 2023, an unauthorized actor may have had access to certain systems that stored personal and protected health information.”

It said that certain employee and patient information was present within the records. Namely, an authorized party gained access to names or other personal identifiers in combination with Social Security numbers.

While it didn’t specify how many employees were affected, the company employs up to 100 people. This suggests that the majority of affected people were the clinic’s patients.

“Although AENT has no evidence of any identity theft or fraud in connection with this incident, AENT is notifying those individuals whose information was present in AENT’s systems at the time of the incident,” it said.

The medical care institution is offering affected people complimentary access to an identity monitoring service for any suspicious activity. AENT encouraged its patients to remain vigilant and monitor credit card reports.

Meanwhile, the company said that it was reviewing its existing policies and procedures, as well as providing additional training to its employees and implementing other safety measures in its networks.