Quest Diagnostics says hackers stole patient data

A major health data breach has been confirmed at Quest Diagnostics.

The lab testing giant told U.S. regulators that hackers got into one of its core systems. This system handles a lot of sensitive patient information. The company filed a formal notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It explained what happened and when they found out.

The attack happened on Wednesday. It targeted a platform called Quanum. This tool is used by doctors, hospitals, and clinics. They use it to order lab tests for their patients. It also manages the billing side of things. Because of this, the system holds a massive amount of data. It includes medical charts, diagnostic results, and billing records. Quest said that unauthorized users accessed certain patient records. They have already notified law enforcement. An internal investigation is now underway.

This incident is part of a long string of attacks on the healthcare sector this year. Cybercriminals have been hitting health tech companies hard. They are often motivated by money. Their goal is to steal as much data as possible. They then threaten to publish it if a ransom is not paid. This has caused weeks of disruption across the industry. Millions of electronic health records have been stolen in recent months.

The healthcare sector has faced several major problems lately. In March, a cyberattack wiped data from employee devices at Stryker. That company makes medical technology. In August, Boston Scientific was hit by a hack. That forced their network offline for weeks. It caused global disruption to their operations. Other major breaches have also been reported. CareCloud, a medical recordkeeping firm, was hit. Craneware, a provider based in Scotland, also suffered a breach. McKesson, a large U.S. pharmaceutical distributor, also lost data this year.

Quest has not yet given specific numbers. It is unclear how many healthcare customers were affected. It is also unclear how many individual patients had their data stolen. The company has not shared these details yet. They are still working to figure out the full scope of the damage.

The Quanum platform is widely used in North America. Quest materials say about half a million clinicians use it. These users are located in thousands of different places. The exact number of health records stored on the platform is not public. However, a case study on Quest’s website from this year offers a clue. It shows that a single health system with over six million patients can generate hundreds of millions of documents. This suggests the volume of data at risk is significant.

The company has not said when the breach started. They have not confirmed if a hacking group has contacted them. There are no reported demands for payment yet. Amanda Rivera is a spokesperson for Quest. She did not answer specific questions about the incident. She directed people to the company’s security notice for more information.

That notice confirms that protected health information was taken. It lists personal information and patient records as compromised items. The company is still investigating what specific types of data were stolen. Interestingly, the website page currently has a code that tells search engines not to list it. This makes it harder for the public to find the notice online. This is Quest’s second major breach in a decade. In 2019, they lost 11.9 million patient records. That incident involved a third-party billing company.