Victim Count Doubles in Heart Institute Data Theft Hack

The number of people affected by a Tennessee cardiac care clinic hack has more than doubled to 411,000 since the healthcare group first reported the incident to regulators in July. Cybercriminal group Karakurt claimed responsibility for the attack, which has so far triggered five class action suits.

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The Chattanooga Heart Institute told the Maine attorney general in a supplemental data breach report filed on Oct. 6 that the total number of affected individuals in a cyberattack on its IT network discovered in April 17 had risen to nearly 411,400 people – including 47 Maine residents.

The Chattanooga, Tennessee-based group in July reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Maine state regulator that the incident had affected 170,450 individuals, including five Maine residents (see: Tennessee Heart Clinic Tells 170,000 of Hacking, Data Breach).

The Chattanooga Heart Institute includes three vascular surgeons and 27 cardiologists at four locations in Tennessee and one in Georgia. In its breach notice, the cardiac practice said its ongoing investigation into the incident had determined that an “unauthorized third party” gained access to its network between March 8 and March 16 and obtained copies of some of the data from its systems containing confidential…