Over a million people have been notified of a recent data breach by Community Health Centre, a nonprofit healthcare organisation based in Middletown, Connecticut. On January 2, 2025, unauthorised activity was detected in its computer systems, and external cybersecurity specialists were hired to help with the investigation and establish the nature and scale of the unauthorised activity.
The investigation revealed that an online criminal gained access to its computer systems and stole data from the network. The Community Health Centre did not confirm whether a ransom demand was made; however, it did state that no data was deleted from its network and no files were encrypted, therefore the incident had no effect on its daily operations.
In the statement to the Attorney General of Maine, Community Health Centre explained that "there is no current threat to our systems, and we believe we stopped the criminal hacker's access within hours." The breach initially occurred on October 14, 2024, according to the breach notice from the Maine Attorney General.
The file review is now concluded, and the Community Health Centre has confirmed that the following data may have been compromised: names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, diagnoses, test results, treatment information, health insurance information, and Social Security numbers.
Up to 1,060,936 people have been impacted, including paediatric patients, their parents, and guardians. Some of the affected individuals passed away, and notifications are being given to their nearest of kin. While the majority of affected patients are likely from Connecticut, the California Attorney General has also been notified of the data leak.
With over 1 million records, this is the most significant healthcare data breach revealed this year. Employees at Moses-Weitzman Health System were also impacted.
According to Community Health Centre, software has been put in place to keep an eye on its systems for suspicious activity, and security has been reinforced. Community Health Centre has provided the impacted individuals with free identity theft protection services for a period of 24 months, even though there are currently no signs that any of the stolen data has been compromised.
