CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A few hundred thousand people are being notified by a couple of local health care systems that some of their personal information may have been hacked.
The data breach impacted NorthShore University HealthSystem and Northwestern Memorial HealthCare.
NorthShore University HealthSystem said 348,000 patients and donors may have had some personal information exposed in a recent data breach. Northwestern Memorial HealthCare said nearly 56,000 donors or patients may have had some of their information exposed.
NorthShore University HealthSystem said the data breach involved Blackbaud, a software services provider to 35,000 nonprofit fundraising entities worldwide including NorthShore Foundation.
RELATED: Man Charged With Hacking Into Police Scanner To Make Threats | Warning About Hackers Hijacking Cell Phones Through SIM Card
According to South Carolina-based Blackbaud, the incident involved a “ransomware” attack on its systems between February 7 and May 20, 2020, during which time unauthorized individuals accessed and extracted some of Blackbaud’s client files. The health care systems were notified in July.
Full names, birth dates, and some clinical information may have been accessed. But, Blackbaud confirmed that no social security numbers, credit card numbers, bank account information, or user login credentials and passwords were compromised or accessed.
This incident was not a breach of NorthShore’s internal applications or systems; and therefore, no patient medical records were accessed.
"Based on the data involved, there is low risk of harm to affected individuals," NorthShore said in the statement. "We are notifying all impacted individuals and reminding everyone to regularly monitor personal accounts for any suspicious activity."
Meanwhile, in a separate statement, Blackbaud said it has “no reason to believe that any data went beyond the cybercriminal, was or will be misused, or will be disseminated or otherwise made available publicly.”
For additional information regarding this incident or to determine if your data was involved, please contact the NorthShore Foundation at: 1-224-364-7200.