300,000 patient records hacked at Florida dental college

300,000 patient records hacked at Florida dental college

By DrBicuspid Staff

November 12, 2008 -- University of Florida officials have notified about 330,000 current and former dental patients that an unauthorized intruder recently accessed a College of Dentistry computer server storing their personal information, according to a university press release.

The breach was discovered October 3, while college information technology staff members were upgrading the server and found software had been installed on it remotely.

Information stored on the server included names, addresses, birth dates, Social Security numbers, and, in some cases, dental procedure information for patients dating back to 1990.

While there is no evidence the intruder has used any confidential information stored on the server for fraudulent purposes, letters were sent to patients to alert them of the breach. The mailings included a brochure listing preventive steps they can take to obtain copies of their credit reports and avoid identity theft or other illegal uses of their personal data.

"It's unfortunate that, like many large institutions, we were targeted. We work hard to continually fine-tune our security protections, and maintaining our patients' trust and confidence is of utmost importance," said Teresa Dolan, dean of the University of Florida College of Dentistry. "We cannot stress enough how seriously we take this matter. As soon as we learned of this situation, we launched an investigation and implemented additional safeguards designed to protect personal information."

FBI officers are also investigating the data security breach.