Dive Brief:
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Hackers broke into the University of California, Los Angeles hospital network, accessing the records of 4.5 million people.
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Information including names, medical information, Social Security numbers, and more may have been stolen, according to the university.
- The breach has the possibility of affecting anyone who has visited the university's medical networks — including four hospitals and 150 offices in Southern California.
Dive Insight:
UCLA Health announced the breach on Friday — two months after it discovered its full extent, but almost a year after the breach initially occurred, in September 2014. The hospital group is now notifying staff and patients of the possible effects.
Dr. James Atkinson, UCLA Hospital System's president, said the hospital group is under "near-constant attack" by hackers and has employed more cybersecurity experts — both internal and external — to protect its network.
A shortage of IT security experts in the U.S. and a rising number of attacks mean CIOs must be constantly aware of what’s happening to their networks. Hackers seem to prefer places they can obtain massive databases of personal information at once, such as health insurance companies and universities.
