Massive Data Breach at Advocate Medical Group

Advocate Medical Group announced Friday that it has been working internally and with law enforcement to investigate the July 15 burglary of an Advocate administrative office in Park Ridge that may have affected their patients’ privacy.

“The most important thing is that this issue has no impact on patient care,” said Kevin McCune, M.D., Advocate Medical Group’s chief medical officer. “Security is a top priority for our health care ministry. Nothing leads us to believe that the computers were taken for the information they contained or that any patient information has been used inappropriately.”

McCune says about 4.03 million patients are being notified and are being providing free credit monitoring and identity theft protection. AMG is also taking aggressive steps to reduce the possibility of this happening again, including the addition of 24/7 security personnel at this facility as well as accelerated deployment of enhanced technical safeguards.

Data breaches can be all but eliminated, by using a secure encrypted provider storing your data at a secure off-site facility. The financial implications for Advocate Medical have yet to be realized, but are expected to range in the millions. Federal regulators and the Illinois attorney general have both also launched investigations.

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