Omni Family Health, a healthcare provider with centers across Kings, Kern, Fresno, and Tulare counties in California, has informed patients and staff about the potential theft of their protected health information (PHI) in a recent cyberattack. The organization learned from reports on August 7, 2024 that a cybercriminal had stolen and published records from its network on the dark web. After investigating these claims, Omni Family Health confirmed that the leaked data were associated with patients and staff.
The breach appears to be connected to a cyberattack in February 2024, which caused a five-day outage of Omni’s systems. At the time, the organization took quick action to avoid further unauthorized access and conducted an investigation that did not initially show any personal data breaches. However, recent evidence suggests that the dark web data leak may be tied to that earlier cyberattack, though the connection remains unconfirmed.
The types of compromised information vary by individual. The information of present and former patients such as names, Social Security numbers, addresses, birthdates, medical insurance data, and medical records may have been stolen. Employee information affected in the breach could include names, Social Security numbers, addresses, birthdates, health data and medical insurance details, financial account data associated with direct deposits, and if given to Omni, dependent and beneficiary details.
Because stolen data was already published on the dark web, HIPAA training requires Omni Family Health to notify those impacted to take immediate steps to secure themselves from identity theft and fraud. They recommend acquiring a free yearly credit report from nationwide consumer reporting agencies and regularly checking financial accounts and statements for dubious activity. The substitute breach notice posted on the Omni website does not talk about offering free identity theft protection or credit monitoring services.
Omni Family Health has reported the breach to regulatory authorities, though the incident has yet to appear on the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights breach portal, hence the total number of affected individuals is still unclear at this time.