The Lister Fertility Clinic Experience Data Breach Following Ransomware Attack
The Lister Fertility Clinic have informed around 1,700 patients that the third-party responsible for scanning medical records on their behalf has been hacked by a cyber-gang, leading to a significant data breach.
Stor-a-File Limited, a company that Lister works with for the scanning of their patients’ and partners’ medical records, advised that their IT systems had been infiltrated by a ransomware cyber-attack, leading to said medical records being exposed.
The data exposed in the breach is said to include various pieces of personal information, such as copies of passports, medical histories, test results and fertility treatment records.
In a letter to affected patients, it was confirmed that the cyber-gang responsible for the attack made a ransom demand for the data, which was not paid by Stor-a-File.
Subsequently, some of the data has been released onto the dark web.
Lister initially claimed that, to their knowledge, no patient data was exposed on the dark web. The gang responsible for the data breach has also supposedly informed Stor-a-File that they do not intend to release patient records on the dark web, but there were certainly no guarantees that these claims would remain true.
It is also understood that data belonging to other clients of Stor-a-File, including Nuffield Health Leicester Hospital, was also illegally accessed during the attack and then posted to the dark web.
In December, Lister provided an update to their current and former patients. A letter was sent out, which confirmed that copies of scanned laboratory records from the clinic, with details of procedures, were exposed during the data breach. The scanned records included full names, hospital numbers, date of births and test results – as well as the details of partners who also came to the clinic.
Lister reaffirmed that some of the data that was accessed has been published to the dark web. However, the letter sent out to patients does not explicitly state whether the scanned laboratory records have been sold. Lister claims that they are currently monitoring the dark web for any information about their patients and will provide a further update when they understand more about what has happened to the breached data.
If you have been contacted by The Lister Fertility Clinic to inform you that your data was exposed in the breach, or you have strong reason to believe that this is the case, you are likely to have grounds to claim compensation.
The team at Hayes Connor are ready to advise and support anyone who has been affected by the Lister Fertility Clinic data breach. To find out more about how you can make a claim, please get in touch.
If you have been affected by the Zellis and MOVEit data breach and would like to claim compensation, please fill in our enquiry form or call us on 0151 363 5895.
What to do if you are concerned about the Lister Fertility Clinic data breach
If your data was exposed in the Lister Fertility Clinic data breach, you should have already received a letter to inform you that this is the case. If you have not received a letter and you are concerned that your data has been compromised, you should get in touch with the clinic as soon as possible.
When your data is exposed in a breach, it is essential that you are extremely vigilant of any unexpected communications, particularly if they appear to be from The Lister Fertility Clinic. These could be ‘phishing’ attacks that are designed to extract further information from you, such as financial data.
There are various ways to reduce the risk of cybercriminals using your personal data against you. To find out more about this, please read our helpful guide on what to do if your data has been stolen in a data breach.
If your data was exposed in the Lister Fertility Clinic data breach, you might be entitled to claim compensation. This is something the team at Hayes Connor can help you with.
How Hayes Connor can help you claim compensation for the Lister Fertility Clinic data breach
Any organisation which stores your personal data is legally obligated to keep it secure, even if they work with a third party to do so. Anyone who is affected by an organisation’s failure to keep data secure may be in line to claim compensation.
Hayes Connor has one of the largest teams of dedicated data breach specialists in the country. We have a wealth of combined expertise among our team and are well placed to take you through all the steps related to bringing forward a claim.
When we discuss your case with you, we will make sure to get to grips with your personal situation, assessing whether you are likely to be owed compensation, how much you could be entitled to and how the general claims process works.
We understand that having your personal data exposed can be incredibly distressing. That’s why our team make sure to provide you with close personal support throughout the claims process, ensuring that everything remains as straightforward as possible.
You can find out more about our expertise and how we handled data breach claims here.
To start a claim, you can use our online claim form.
To speak to a member of our team about the Lister Fertility Clinic data breach, please do not hesitate to give us a call on 0151 363 5895.