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Monday, August 15, 2011

ISU Breach Exposes Medical Information




A breach in an Idaho State University server's firewall has exposed private medical information from patients of Pocatello Family Medicine to anyone on the Internet.

But, the clinic said, there is no evidence that any of that medical information has been stolen or even accessed. They say the firewall was taken down in August of 2010 for maintenance, but an employee noticed that it still was not back up in May.

Some hackers did access the server and used the space there to store some movies, but Medical Practice Director Amy O'Brien said, patients do not need to worry.

"I don't think there's a big cause for concern but we just wanted to be proactive and let them know and try to take care of them," she said.

O'Brien said a call center has been established for patients with questions and anyone affected is being offered free credit monitoring for the next year.