Solara Medical Supplies to update security protocol after unauthorized third-party gained access to 80,000 patients’ data

Risk to Small Business: 1.444 = Extreme: An unauthorized third-party gained access to several employee accounts containing patient and employee data. The breach was first discovered on June 20th, and the compromised data was exposed between April 2nd and June 20th. In response, the company reset account passwords, and Solara is updating its policies to ensure that a similar scenario doesn’t occur again in the future. Unfortunately, such maneuvers won’t help patients whose data was already stolen in the breach. Moreover, the company’s lengthy response time will certainly invite increased regulatory scrutiny while giving consumers fodder for criticism during the recovery effort.

Individual Risk: 2.142 = Severe: Personal information, including names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, employee identification numbers, medical information, health insurance information, financial information, credit/debit card numbers, password information, Medicare/Medicaid numbers, and billing information were all at risk. This comprehensive data set can quickly be distributed on the Dark Web, where it can be used to execute even more egregious cybercrimes. Those impacted by the breach should take every precaution to ensure that their data isn’t being misused.