The University of Alabama at Birmingham, the covered entity (CE), was the victim of an email phishing attack that affected the electronic protected health information (ePHI) of 19,557 individuals. The ePHI involved included names, birthdates, diagnoses, Social Security numbers, medication prescribed, and clinical information. The CE notified HHS, affected individuals, the media, and posted substitute notice on its website. In its mitigation efforts, the CE sanctioned the responsible employee(s), implemented additional administrative and technical safeguards, and retrained its staff on the proper methods of identifying fraudulent email communications. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions noted.
