Quest Diagnostics disclosed a cybersecurity breach this week involving unauthorized access to its Quanum Lab Services Manager platform, a system used by clients to place test orders and view results. The New Jersey-based company said it discovered the intrusion on Wednesday and has notified federal law enforcement.
The company stated in a regulatory filing Thursday that "certain patient records" were likely compromised, but the total number of affected patients and the specific records involved remain unknown. Quest said it is working with external cybersecurity experts to investigate the full scope of the incident.
Quest confirmed to The Associated Press that the breach is unrelated to recently discovered vulnerabilities in the PHP programming language that have prompted widespread security patching across the internet.
The laboratory operator has experienced previous data security incidents. In 2016, a breach exposed lab results and contact information for approximately 34,000 people. In 2019, a separate hack at billing vendor American Medical Collection Agency affected personal information belonging to about 11.9 million Quest patients.
The disclosure comes as cyberattacks continue to rise across multiple industries, affecting sectors ranging from healthcare and education to retail.
Sources: Las Vegas Review-Journal
Original reporting: Las Vegas Review-Journal →
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