A major dental health insurer in the United States has fallen victim to an apparent ransomware attack, compromising the personal information of nearly nine million individuals.
MCNA Dental, headquartered in Atlanta and recognized as the nation's largest dental insurer for government-sponsored plans covering children and seniors, recently discovered unauthorized activity within its computer system. On March 6, the company became aware of this breach, with subsequent investigation revealing that a hacker had accessed and made copies of certain information between February 26 and March 7, 2023.
The stolen data encompasses a wealth of sensitive personal details belonging to patients. Additionally, the hackers were able to retrieve patients' health insurance information, including plan details and Medicaid ID numbers, as well as billing and insurance claim data.
MCNA Dental has reported to Maine's attorney general that the recent data breach impacted over 8.9 million of its clients, making it the most significant health information breach of 2023 thus far. This surpasses the PharMerica breach, where hackers gained access to the personal information of nearly 6 million patients.
Although MCNA Dental conducted a thorough review to ascertain the extent of the data affected, the company has not disclosed specific details regarding the incident. The review concluded on May 3, approximately two months after the cyberattack occurred.
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