Deliberate Parenthood’s Los Angeles affiliate mentioned this week {that a} hacker had compromised info for 400,000 sufferers in a ransomware assault, however it didn’t imagine that the information had been used for “fraudulent functions.”
The group mentioned it didn’t know who was answerable for the assault, which got here at a doubtlessly momentous juncture within the debate over abortion rights.
The group mentioned that it had recognized suspicious exercise on its laptop community on Oct. 17 and had taken its programs offline, notified regulation enforcement officers and engaged a cybersecurity agency to research.
The investigation, which was persevering with, decided that an “unauthorized individual” had gained entry to the community between Oct. 9 and Oct. 17, put in ransomware after which withdrew information.
A evaluate of these information discovered that they contained sufferers’ names, in addition to dates of beginning, addresses, insurance coverage identification numbers and medical knowledge akin to analysis, remedy or prescription info.
Deliberate Parenthood of Los Angeles mentioned it had “no proof that any info concerned on this incident has been used for fraudulent functions” however was notifying sufferers who have been affected “out of an abundance of warning.”
“Sadly, we have no idea the identification of the individual accountable, which isn’t unusual in these conditions,” John M. Erickson, a spokesman for Deliberate Parenthood Los Angeles, mentioned in an e-mail on Wednesday. “Nonetheless, now we have no indication this was a focused assault.”
The breach affected solely the native Los Angeles Deliberate Parenthood affiliate, the group mentioned. No knowledge from the Deliberate Parenthood Federation of America or every other Deliberate Parenthood affiliate was compromised.
“PPLA takes the safeguarding of sufferers’ info extraordinarily significantly, and deeply regrets that this incident occurred and for any concern this will trigger,” the group mentioned in a information launch on Tuesday. The group mentioned that in response to the assault, it had enhanced its safety measures, elevated the monitoring of its community and added cybersecurity personnel.
Ransomware assaults have grow to be more and more widespread and have hit large companies, faculties and universities, native governments, hospitals and the police. In lots of circumstances, hackers break into laptop networks and lock up digital info till the sufferer pays for its launch.
Deliberate Parenthood’s disclosure that it had been the sufferer of such an assault got here at a doubtlessly important second for the way forward for abortion rights.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court docket appeared poised to uphold a Mississippi regulation that bans abortions after 15 weeks of being pregnant. Such a choice would squarely battle with Roe v. Wade, the 1973 resolution that established a constitutional proper to abortion and prohibited states from banning the process earlier than fetal viability, at present round 23 weeks.
If the Supreme Court docket upholds the regulation, Deliberate Parenthood has mentioned that greater than 36 million girls of reproductive age, and extra individuals who can grow to be pregnant, in 26 largely Southern and Midwestern states might lose entry to abortion.