Patients sued Lexington Medical Center after being notified of a data breach.
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Earlier this week, it was revealed that Lexington Medical Center is being sued after patient data was accessed by unauthorized parties.
We followed up to find out what people can do to protect their data and what happens after these breaches.
Scott Cook of the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs said any data shared, such as logging into email on public Wi-Fi or providing your name and date of birth in a doctor’s office, could be compromised. It is explained that there is a sex.
“In a security breach, it’s not always about doing nothing wrong, and the companies involved may not necessarily be doing anything wrong,” Cook said.
Lexington Medical Center notified patients in February that their data was accessed by an unauthorized person in October 2023.
In a statement WLTX received from the hospital on Friday, their leaders explained that 1,994 people were affected. Of those, 52 are out-of-state residents.
Cooke says companies that experience data breaches in this way need to let their customers know.
“In South Carolina, we are required by law to notify the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs if a business has 1,000 or more people affected by a data breach. Upon receipt of such notification, we will post a notice on our website. We’ll post it,” Cook explained.
Cook and Chinzer Huang, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of South Carolina, explained that there’s not much that can be done once the data is collected.
“Let’s say some type of identity theft has happened to you. If you notice some unknown charges or charges from a seller you don’t do business with, that’s a clear sign that your identity has been used. ” explained Huang.
Now, one of those affected by this breach is suing Lexington Medical Center.
Lexington Medical Center also added in a statement that all people affected by the breach were notified by letter and given credit monitoring instructions.
