Houston Health Department suffered a massive data breach after a glitch in the system that exposed the COVID-19 test results and personal information of thousands of its residents.
The breach exposed 10,000 COVID results, including patient names, addresses, dates of birth, email addresses, testing dates and test results, which can be used for any malicious intent.
The department sent letters to the affected individuals notifying them of the incident and providing information about free identity protection services for one year.
Source: https://abc13.com/houston-health-department-covid-19-testing-portal-breach-online/11596613/
TPRM report: https://scoringcyber.rankiteo.com/company/houston-health-department-city
"id": "hou1612522",
"linkid": "houston-health-department-city",
"type": "Breach",
"date": "01/2022",
"severity": "80",
"impact": "4",
"explanation": "Attack with significant impact with customers data leaks"{'affected_entities': [{'customers_affected': 10000,
'industry': 'Healthcare',
'location': 'Houston, Texas',
'name': 'Houston Health Department',
'type': 'Government Agency'}],
'attack_vector': 'System Glitch',
'data_breach': {'number_of_records_exposed': 10000,
'personally_identifiable_information': ['Patient names',
'Addresses',
'Dates of birth',
'Email addresses'],
'sensitivity_of_data': 'High',
'type_of_data_compromised': ['Patient names',
'Addresses',
'Dates of birth',
'Email addresses',
'Testing dates',
'Test results']},
'description': 'Houston Health Department suffered a massive data breach '
'after a glitch in the system that exposed the COVID-19 test '
'results and personal information of thousands of its '
'residents.',
'impact': {'data_compromised': ['Patient names',
'Addresses',
'Dates of birth',
'Email addresses',
'Testing dates',
'Test results'],
'identity_theft_risk': 'High'},
'response': {'communication_strategy': 'Letters sent to affected individuals '
'notifying them of the incident and '
'providing information about free '
'identity protection services for one '
'year.'},
'title': 'Houston Health Department Data Breach',
'type': 'Data Breach'}