Personal information of over 50,000 customers leaked after data breach of diagnostics company

Comparitech, a consumer privacy watchdog, found that approximately 52,000 of Premier Diagnostics patients had their sensitive information exposed due to a possible data breach after a Utah company used a publicly accessible server to store sensitive information, KSTU-TV reports. The diagnostic firm operates 11 COVID-19 testing sites all over northern Utah, and patients are required to submit pictures of their driver’s licenses, passports and insurance ID cards. "They had stored all that data on a server that was publicly accessible online without a password,” said comparitech.com editor Paul Bischoff. A Comparitech researcher discovered the issue on Feb. 22 while performing a scan of unsecured databases on the internet. “The data was finally secured on March first. So, we know it was exposed between February 22nd and March first,” Bischoff said. While the database did not contain any payment information, Bischoff worries that the information involved in the potential leak could be used in medical insurance fraud.