Oregon dental group notifies 151K of data breach

More than 150,000 patients of Advantage Dental have been notified about a potential breach of personal patient protected health information after its intrusion detection system discovered that an internal database was illegally accessed. The Oregon-based dental services provider notified 151,626 patients of the unauthorized access that occurred between February 23, 2015 and February 26, 2015, according to a release. The intruder was able to gain access to this database through a computer that had been infected with malware. Advantage terminated the illegal access immediately upon discovery on February 26, 2015. The intrusion resulted in the unauthorized access to names, dates of birth, phone numbers, Social Security numbers and home addresses. No treatment, payment, or any other financial data was accessed. Since terminating the illegal access, Advantage has been reviewing and improving its safeguards, implemented mitigation steps to prevent further access and has been working with law enforcement to properly determine the scope of the incident and any additional steps that might be required, according to the release. At this time, Advantage has no indication that the stolen information has been used for criminal activity, to include identity theft.