DocGo patient health data stolen in cyberattack

Medical health care provider DocGo has disclosed in a form 8-K that it experienced a cybersecurity incident involving some of the company’s systems. As part of the investigation of the incident, the company says it has determined that the attacker accessed and acquired data, including certain protected health information.

DocGo is a healthcare provider that offers mobile health services, ambulance services, and remote monitoring for patients in 30 US states, and across the United Kingdom. On its company website it touts over 7,000,000 patient interactions.

In the same form, DocGo says the breach concerns a limited number of healthcare records within the company’s US-based ambulance transportation business, and that no other business lines have been involved.

DocGo says it is actively reaching out to those individuals who had their data compromised in the attack.

So far, we have no indication what the nature of the cyberattack was, but it is almost standard procedure nowadays for ransomware groups to use stolen data as extra leverage to get the victim to pay the ransom.

Protecting yourself from a data breach

There are some actions you can take if you are, or suspect you may have been, the victim of a data breach.

• Check the vendor’s advice. Every breach is different, so check with the vendor to find out what’s happened, and follow any specific advice they offer.
• Change your password. You can make a stolen password useless to thieves by changing it. Choose a strong password that you don’t use for anything else. Better yet, let a password manager choose one for you.
• Enable two-factor authentication (2FA). If you can, use a FIDO2-compliant hardware key, laptop or phone as your second factor. Some forms of two-factor authentication (2FA) can be phished just as easily as a password. 2FA that relies on a FIDO2 device can’t be phished.
• Watch out for fake vendors. The thieves may contact you posing as the vendor. Check the vendor website to see if they are contacting victims, and verify any contacts using a different communication channel.
• Take your time. Phishing attacks often impersonate people or brands you know, and use themes that require urgent attention, such as missed deliveries, account suspensions, and security alerts.
• Set up identity monitoring. Identity monitoring alerts you if your personal information is found being traded illegally online, and helps you recover after.

Check your digital footprint

Malwarebytes has a new free tool for you to check how much of your personal data has been exposed online. Submit your email address (it’s best to give the one you most frequently use) to our free Digital Footprint scan and we’ll give you a report and recommendations.