The Charles George VA Medical Center recently announced a data breach involving the personal information of more than 1,541 Veterans, and actions taken by the health care system to prevent and mitigate any potential harm to those individuals.
The center became aware of a May 12 email correspondence inadvertently disclosing the personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI) and took immediate mitigative actions to delete the information from recipients who had not yet opened the communication.
This disclosure included an attachment which was sent through Secure Messaging to three veterans. The medical center received read receipts back from two of those recipients. The email messages were recalled through Securing Messaging.
An investigation was initiated and subsequently, a determination was made that a data breach occurred.
To protect these Veterans, Charles George VA Medical Center is alerting the affected individuals of the potential risk to their personal information. The department is also offering access to credit monitoring services, at no cost, to those whose social security numbers may have been compromised.
Veterans whose information was involved are advised to follow the instructions in the letter to protect their data. There is no action needed from Veterans if they did not receive an alert by mail, as their personal information was not involved in the incident.