In June, a hacker obtained access to Athens (Ga.) Orthopedic Clinic's patient electronic health records, according to Online Athens.
Here are four things to know:
1. Hackers may have accessed patients' Social Security numbers, names, addresses, telephone numbers and pieces of medical data.
2. AOC is in the process of notifying patients about the breach.
3. AOC CEO Kayio Elliott said the hackers used a third-party vendor's log-in credentials to get access to the system.
4. A Ponemon Institute report found data breaches cost the industry $6.2 billion over the last two years.
Ms. Elliot said, "Rest assured that we are taking all necessary measures to ensure that any resulting damage is limited to the extent possible and working to retain your trust in our practice. We advise that our patients contact credit reporting agencies to create a fraud alert as soon as possible; we have posted a statement on our website that includes credit reporting agency contact information."
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