ZOLL Medical Says 1 Million Patients Affected by January Cyberattack and Data Breach
ZOLL Medical has recently announced that it has suffered a cyberattack in which the protected health information of more than one million patients was exposed. ZOLL Medical develops and markets emergency care medical devices such as resuscitation, ventilation, oxygen therapy, and cardiac monitoring products and associated software solutions.
According to the notification letter sent to the Maine Attorney General, unusual activity was detected within its internal network on January 28, 2023. The forensic investigation revealed on February 2, 2023, that unauthorized individuals had gained access to parts of the network that included patient information such as names, addresses, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers. The individuals affected either used or were previously considered for use of the ZOLL LifeVest wearable cardioverter defibrillator (WCD).
ZOLL Medical did not provide details of the exact nature of the cyberattack, such as whether malware or ransomware was involved, nor if any data was exfiltrated, but did state that no evidence of actual or attempted misuse of patient data has been detected.
Notification letters are now being mailed to all affected individuals. While data misuse has not been detected, as a precaution against identity theft and fraud, affected individuals have been offered complimentary credit monitoring and identity theft protection services for 24 months. In response to the cyberattack, ZOLL Medical is evaluating its security measures and will augment them, as appropriate, to improve security and prevent similar incidents in the future.
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The notification to the Maine Attorney General indicates 1,004,443 individuals have been affected in total, with the HHS’ breach portal showing the breach as involving the protected health information of 997,097 individuals.
This isn’t the first large data breach to affect ZOLL Medical. In 2018, the protected health information of approximately 277,000 users of its medical equipment was exposed due to a breach at a third-party software vendor. A server migration error at Barracuda Networks resulted in parts of its email archive being exposed online.
