Philly health system victim of 'spear phishing'

Beth Walsh | | Health Exec | Cybersecurity

The FBI and IRS are investigating a spear phishing scam that put every employee of Philadelphia-based Main Line Health at risk for identity fraud.

Spear phishing is a type of online phishing scam in which an email from a hacker or con artist is disguised as a message from a legitimate business or individual in order to elicit sensitive information.

Main Line Health, which runs Lankenau Medical Center in Wynnewood as well as Bryn Mawr and Paoli hospitals, learned about the spear phishing incident on Feb. 16 when an employee opened an email that requested the information of those who work in the health system, according to a report from CBSPhilly.

The email recipient thought the message was real and sent the information.

Main Line Health officials say they first learned this happened soon after the IRS issued a warning on Tuesday that there’s been a spear phishing surge this tax season in which scammers are getting access to some W2 forms.

Main Line health officials have opened call centers for employees and have made credit monitoring available free of charge.

Officials say no personal information of patients has been released or otherwise compromised.

Beth Walsh,

Editor

Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.

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