Maine (WABI) – Medical laboratory operator Quest Diagnostics said it learned of a cyber breach of one of its systems this week, likely compromising some records for patients
Quest acquired Northern Light Health’s outreach lab services in 2023. Quest says through the partnership with the health system, their company provides laboratory management services for nine of Northern Light’s hospital laboratories, along with its cancer center laboratory in Brewer.
The hospital system says there is no indication right now that their patients were impacted by the breach.
“We have been in close communication with Quest Laboratories regarding their reported data breach,” Suzanne Spruce, Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing and Communication Officer for Northern Light Health said in a statement. “At this time Quest has not indicated that any Northern Light Health associated data was involved and we have put additional monitoring in place as they work through this issue.”
Spruce added that hospital lab services have not been affected, and are operating as normal.
In a Thursday regulatory filing, Quest Diagnostics reported “unauthorized access” to its Quanum Lab Services Manager, a platform where certain clients can place test orders and receive or look up their results. The company said it discovered the hack on Wednesday and notified federal law enforcement.
How many patients and which particular records have been affected is still unknown. Quest Diagnostics said it believes “certain patient records” were accessed in the breach, but that the full scope remains under investigation.
The New Jersey-based company said it’s also working with external cybersecurity experts to assist in its response.
Quest Diagnostics has seen hacks impacting patient records before. In 2016, for example, the company said data including lab results and contact information of about 34,000 people was exposed in another online breach. And in 2019, other personal information belonging to about 11.9 million Quest patients was affected after a separate hack at American Medical Collection Agency, a billing collections service provider.
The Associated Presscontributed to this report.
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