Saint Anthony Hospital Data Breach Investigation
The Lyon Firm is investigating the ransomware attack that allegedly stole a large amount of personal data from Saint Anthony Hospital in Chicago. Contact our data breach lawyers if you or a loved one is a former or current patient of the hospital. You may be able to file a class action claim to recover compensation for any damages and to hold any negligent party accountable for the data theft incident.
What Happened at Saint Anthony Hospital?
The issue was first detected on December 18, 2023, and on January 29, 2024, Saint Anthony posted a notice on their website informing patients of a cyberattack that impacted their network. The hospital explained that an unauthorized party may have been able to access patients’ sensitive information. Saint Anthony Hospital will send out data breach notification letters to any individuals whose information was affected by the attack.
The LockBit ransomware gang, meanwhile, added Saint Anthony to its data leak site and has demanded a ransom payment of almost $900,000. Hospital officials have indicated they have no plans to pay the ransom. In a statement, they noted “As a vital safety-net hospital to the people in the communities we serve, we are dedicated to using our resources to care for our community’s most vulnerable and not to rewarding the illegal actions of bad actors.”
An investigation confirmed on January 7, 2024, that an unknown third party had copied files from its network that contained patient information. Saint Anthony Hospital provides medical care throughout South and Southwest Chicago, including in Little Village, North Lawndale, Brighton Park, Garfield Park, Back of the Yards, McKinley Park, Archer Heights, Pilsen, Austin, and Chinatown, and suburban Cicero. The hospital says it saw more than 340,000 patients in 2021 and 2022.
The incident has been reported to the FBI, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and other regulators. Ransomware groups have been targeting hospitals with increasing frequency for the last few years. Medical data can be very valuable for cybercriminals and many healthcare entities are considered easy targets because of their vulnerable IT security.
Contact our data breach lawyers to consider legal action and to learn more about what you should do following a data breach incident. Do not hesitate to act and to protect yourself from fraud and identity theft. Call for a free consultation and case review.