What The University Health Data Breach Means For San Antonio Businesses

Businesses in the San Antonio area are reeling after a major cyber attack hit University Health. 

Cybercrime has been an issue for businesses all over the world for the past couple of decades, but it’s becoming more and more prevalent in areas such as San Antonio. Texas has seen a major increase in cyber attacks just in the last year, and no business—no matter the size or industry—is immune.

What Happened in the University Health Data Breach?

San Antonio-based University Health’s billing services vendor has recently fallen victim to a data breach. Around April this year, they began letting nearly 3,000 patients know that their sensitive and private information would likely be in the hands of cybercriminals. The data breach took place around December 2020. 

University health later said in a news release that Med-Data, the vendor in question, provides revenue cycle and patient billing services for the Texas health system. 

A former Med-Data employee saved PHI files to personal folders that were published on a public website while the employee was still at Med-Data. 

The files were removed from the website on December 17th and experts were able to produce a list of all those affected. While everything was removed from the site, they were still unaware as to whether the data would have been stored or saved elsewhere.

The data potentially included the likes of addresses, birthdates, social security numbers, and other highly sensitive information. Med-Data is now offering affected individuals credit monitoring and identity theft protection through IDX.

What Does the Breach Mean for San Antonio-Based Businesses?

Data breaches like this are disastrous for the communities in the area and put public trust in serious doubt. 

For those who need personal information from customers and clients in order to fully register them, this can cause problems. Thousands of names and vital pieces of their information will have gone astray and there’s little that anyone can do about it. 

Businesses in the area may also suffer due to the fact that this kind of behavior has proven to be a success. More and more San Antonio companies may fall victim to this kind of breach going forward. If it so easily happened this time, who’s to say it couldn’t be taken advantage of again in another firm? 

That said, there are plenty of ways your San Antonio business can protect itself against increasing threats to prevent a data breach in the first place. 

What Can San Antonio Businesses Do to Protect Themselves?

In order to prevent something like this from happening, a business will need to ensure that it has help from a trusted IT company in San Antonio. 

IT professionals can assist your business in developing strategic plans to enhance cybersecurity, prepare for disaster recovery, implement regular data backups, and more. They can also evaluate your risk factor and give suggestions for how to mitigate that risk.

In terms of stopping employees from misbehaving or accidentally leaking information, a company should also provide Security Awareness Training for their staff and establish company-wide policies. If there are clear consequences for those who exhibit negligence or incompetence, your staff will be more likely to keep your data safe.

While major attacks like the University Health breach can be scary, with these tips, you can protect your business from a similar attack.

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