TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa General Hospital is notifying patients and staff members that someone may have accessed their personal data in a breach that happened back in May.
Hospital officials said the files the hackers accessed included names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, health insurance information and other patient and treatment information.
They also said the files were used for TGH's business operations and that the hackers didn't access the hospital's electronic medical record system.
The hospital will be mailing letters notifying anyone whose information may have been included in the files. They will also provide free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services to anyone whose Social Security numbers were accessed.
They urge patients with questions about the breach to visit their website.
TGH said in a written statement that it detected unusual activity on its computer systems on May 31. They did an investigation with the help of a cybersecurity firm and found that an unauthorized user accessed the hospital's network and downloaded the files between May 12-30.
Officials say they reported the breach to the FBI and gave information to support an investigation of the criminal group responsible.
"TGH considers the health, safety and privacy of patients and team members a top priority," a spokesperson for the hospital said in a news release, "The hospital is continuously updating and hardening systems to help prevent events such as this from occurring and has implemented additional defensive tools and increased monitoring."
Tampa General Hospital also encourages patients to go over statements from their health insurer and healthcare providers and to contact them immediately if they see any services they did not receive.