Palomar Health Medical Group (PHMG) issued a notice on Wednesday saying patient information may have been exposed in a recent data breach.
PHMG said in an email to KPBS that the breach occurred between April 23 and May 5. The email, sent on behalf of PHMG and its affiliates Graybill Medical Group Inc. and Pacific Accountable Care Inc., said hackers accessed patients’ names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, medical histories and health insurance information.
Since May 5, PHMG’s computers have been down, preventing doctors from accessing patient records, including prescription information.
Palomar Health said it was unclear how many patient records were exposed but that the hackers appeared to have downloaded and deleted some files, which it said may be “irrecoverable.”
Tony Anscombe, a cybersecurity expert at global cybersecurity firm ESET in San Diego, said this is extremely worrying and that patients with PHMG should assume their data has been compromised.
“We also back-check your health insurance claims to ensure there have been no fraudulent claims on your policy in the past two months,” Anscombe says. “We lock your credit file, which means no one can access it using your Social Security number or personal information.”
Nicholas Behar, a cybersecurity professor at the University of San Diego, said the hack was likely double extortion ransomware because the hackers were able to download and delete records.
“This leads me to believe that the attackers are trying to remove the data and then saying, ‘If you want your data back, you’ll have to pay us,'” he said. “And then once they get the data back, they’ll say, ‘Okay, if you don’t want us to release your data, you’ll have to pay us again.’ This is becoming very common.”
Behar said smaller health systems like Palomar Health don’t have the financial or staffing resources to recover the data quickly.
PHMG said anyone with questions about the breach can call them at (888) 829-5736 between the hours of 9am and 9pm Eastern time, excluding holidays. They can also send a letter to 15611 Pomerado Road, Poway, CA 92064.