Quest Diagnostics Confirms Breach Exposing Patient Data

Quest Diagnostics confirmed on its website Thursday that one of its lab systems was hacked earlier this month, exposing an unknown amount of patient data.

Breach discovered and access paused

The New Jersey-based medical testing company said it first became aware of unauthorized access to its Quanum Lab Services Manager system on October 21st and immediately paused access. The company said it is continuing to investigate the incident and is working to fully restore the affected system as quickly as possible. It also said it is working to determine the specific data affected.

Patient data involved, scope unknown

According to Quest, both patient health information and patient-identifiable information were involved, although it is still determining the scope of the intrusion. The company said it is working diligently to identify impacted patients and providers and, as the covered entity, will make notifications as required by applicable law. Quest has not said how many people were affected.

Operations and other systems unaffected

Quest said its core business operations remain up and running, while other direct-customer LIS interfaces and EMRs used to order testing were not affected. The Quanum Lab Services Manager system is used by certain clients to place test orders, receive, and look up test results. Preliminary findings show the incident is not related to a PHP programming language issue.

Quest Diagnostics is an American clinical laboratory that performs more than 200 million clinical lab tests per year, according to its website. It operates over 7,700 access points, including roughly 2,000 patient service centers across the US, and serves half of US physicians and hospitals and one in three US adults each year.

Sources: Cybernews