Potentially significant health data breach hits Viamedis

BleepingComputer reports that French healthcare services company Viamedis, which manages payments for 20 million insured individuals across the country, has confirmed having its systems impacted by a cyberattack. Attackers were able to compromise beneficiaries' birthdates, marital status, and Social Security numbers, as well as health insurer names and third-party payment guarantees, from Viamedis' systems following a phishing attack against an employee, according to Viamedis General Director Christopher Cande. However, such an intrusion did not affect banking information, email addresses, phone numbers, and postal details. While an investigation into the extent of the breach is still underway, health insurer Malakoff Humanis has reported being indirectly affected by the incident but emphasized that there has been no compromise of banking, contact, and medical information. Meanwhile, health payment processing organization Almerys was also reported to have been impacted by the same cyberattack launched against Viamedis.