Medical data breach affects Jackson County patients

JACKSON COUNTY, Fla. (WTVY) - A data breach that targeted hundreds of organizations nationwide has been found to also have impacted the billing service provider for Jackson County Fire Rescue, leaving several patients’ information potentially compromised.

In a release from billing provider EMS Management and Consultants Inc. (EMS|MC), the company confirmed themselves as a user of Progress Software Corp.’s MOVEit Transfer tool, which according to national source Reuters was attacked by digital extortionist group “cl0p” on May 31. That breach, along with an additional one reported in June 2023, affected at least 600 organizations in the United States, including EMS|MC.

EMS|MC said in their release that they moved quickly to patch the tool and mitigate the situation, with a cybersecurity specialist-assisted investigation being launched to determine the impact of the incident. It was determined from the investigation and a separate third-party data analysis firm review that patients’ information was included in the data accessed by an unknown actor who accessed the MOVEit Transfer server.

Among the potentially impacted information for Jackson County Fire Rescue patients and others whose organization uses EMS|MC includes names, dates of transport, social security numbers, dates of birth, encounter/transport numbers, billing codes and other patient information related to the ambulance transport.

While there is no word on if any of the accessed information was misused by bad actors, individuals whose information is confirmed to have been accessed are being contacted at this time with steps to help protect their information if they feel it is necessary to do so. EMS|MC is mailing out notice letters on behalf of its EMS agency customer to impacted individuals who have a valid mailing address.

Anyone wishing to find additional information about the data breach event and steps they can take to protect their personal information can contact EMS|MC toll-free at (833) 318-2801, with a reference code of B100189.

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