Jefferson County Health Department data breach

This content has been archived. But, the content is true and relevant to the underlying technology products or infrastructure services.

Jefferson County Health Department has confirmed a data breach that happened in October 2022 and on 15th November 2022. The State Health Department has started sending letters about the data breach to clients who had electronic records.

Key points about the data breach at Jefferson County Health Department

  • The data breach happened in October 2022. The last breach happened on 15th November 2022.
  • The data breach was detected after a ransomware attack was reported on the Jefferson Health Department’s records. Unauthorized access to the computer systems happened between 31st October 2022 to 15th November 2022.
  • Forensic investigation of the data suggested that some data may have been accessed by the ransomware group.
  • The Health Department has sent letters to 115940 users who have electronic records in the department. These letters were sent on 13th January 2023 by a third-party service provider on behalf of the Jefferson County Health Department.
  • The letter directs recipients to sign up for a free year of credit monitoring through the Equifax consumer credit reporting agency and up to $1 million in identity theft insurance.
  • Equifax registration must be completed before 30th April 2023.
  • You can enquire about the data breach and how it affects you by calling 1-888-231-1048 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays.
Jefferson County Health Department data breach

Meanwhile, Brianne Zwiener, public communications officer for the Health Department has released the following statements:

“Upon identifying the scope of the data security incident, and in continuing its thorough investigation, JCHC also undertook a comprehensive and time-consuming manual review process to identify the specific individuals with personal information and/or protected health information contained therein, if any. The forensic investigation and manual review process were completed on Nov. 30, 2022.  We notified individuals as soon as we could once we determined that the data security incidents may have impacted individual’s personal information and/or protected health information.”

Leader Paper

If you have received a data breach letter from the Jefferson County Health Department, please get in touch on the advertised phone numbers to understand the risks attached to the data breach.

It is recommended to take up Equifax insurance to protect yourself against any fraudulent transactions over the next year.

Rajesh Dhawan

Rajesh Dhawan is a technology professional who loves to write about Cyber-security events and stories, Cloud computing and Microsoft technologies. He loves to break complex problems into manageable chunks of meaningful information.