Vitas Healthcare Data Breach Affects Over 300,000 Individuals
A significant data breach at Vitas Healthcare, the largest for-profit hospice chain in the United States, has impacted over 300,000 individuals. The breach was discovered on October 24, when Vitas Hospice Services identified an intrusion into their systems. The investigation revealed that the attacker accessed the systems using a compromised vendor account, maintaining unauthorized access from September 21 to October 27. During this period, the hacker downloaded sensitive personal information of current and former patients, including names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, Social Security numbers, medical information, insurance details, and contact information for next of kin. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' data breach tracker confirmed that 319,177 individuals were affected by this incident.