The leading medical diagnosis and testing laboratory in the last weekend faced a large-scale cyber attack, which could leak personal information of patients.
LabCorp is one of the world’s largest players for testing domestic laboratories and has impact on about half of the US population.
LabCorp has been attacked using ransomware, which is software hackers used to access data, and then asked payment under threat of disclosure or to prevent victims from accessing data.
Tiffany Scott, Wiggins Family Practice nurse, says, “I’d say I have about 20 patients using LabCorp.
Tiffany says patients should be suspicious for providing personal information to large companies.
“It’s a little scary, I mean, especially if there are patients who are involved in legal issues,” says Tiffany. “There are many people who can get a lot of information and these things are classified.”
Tiffany says her patients can choose where they want their results, including local hospitals.
“We give them their slip, and the patient can choose where they want to do their labs test at,” Tiffany said.
Majority of the people use LabCorp owing to their work requirements or insurance.
Jerry Scott, sterile process engineer at Baptist Health says, “Hospital work is stern and this also applies to patient confidentiality. You know, if you close breach that agreement, you lose confidence in the company.”
Whether it is drug testing, blood sampling, or any other testing, local hospitals offer the same services as LabCorp.
Jerry says his doctor recommends that local hospitals should be used for testing, as they are less targeted at cyber attacks. “Dr. Wiggins specifically asked me to go to the hospital, not to these places,” he says.
LabCorp informed its employees that it did not actively inform customers, but worked to counter to definite customer requests.
