Planned Parenthood Los Angeles data breach has affected 400K patients

Planned Parenthood Los Angeles has been hit by a cyberattack and has disclosed a data breach after a ransomware attack in October which exposed around 400.000 patients data.

As per the Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, the cyberattack has happened between October 9th and October 17th, where the cyber criminals had stolen the files from the network during this duration. On October 17th, the organization identified some suspicious activity on the their network and took their systems offline instantly, also notified the law enforcement and third-party cybersecurity organization to investigate the incident further.

After the investigation it was identified that an unknown person has gained access to their network and had stolen the files between October 9th and 11th. The first report to Washington Post was by the organization’s spokesperson John Erickson, and it was informed that 400,000 patients data are compromised.

Planned Parenthood data breach and its reason

The ransomware attack that hit the PPLA has been the reason behind this data breach as hackers continue to lurk around the compromised network even after achieving their mission, this is to extract further benefit from the attack and that’s how the PPLA’s 400,000 patient data were stolen.

How should patients safeguard themselves from this data breach?

Patients should be looking out for stranger emails, that require urgency or interaction in some way. This could also happen via SMS as the phone numbers are also compromised. If any such SMS or emails are obtained the patients should immediately contact PPLA authorities.

This Planned Parenthood Data Breach is a warning sign for healthcare organizations.