PULLMAN, Wash. – Washington State University (WSU) announced that some students and staff who used the Cougar Health Services Pharmacy (CHS) on the Pullman campus may have had their personal health information exposed in a recent cyberattack on a third-party service provider.
According to WSU, Change Healthcare, which processes insurance claims for healthcare organizations nationwide, including CHS, notified WSU on June 20 that personally identifiable health information of CHS Pharmacy users may have been compromised in the breach.
Change Healthcare discovered ransomware in its system on Feb. 21 and immediately stopped the attack, disconnected systems and launched an investigation with law enforcement. They confirmed data exfiltration occurred between Feb. 17 and Feb. 20. On April 22, Change Healthcare publicly acknowledged that a significant amount of data, potentially including contact details, addresses, dates of birth and health information, was exposed.
WSU advises affected individuals to visit Change Healthcare’s data breach notification website to enroll in two years of complimentary credit monitoring and identity protection services.
