ALERT: County officials report breach of e-mail accounts

Elmore County officials alerted residents in the local community that a recent cyber incident involving a county employee’s e-mail accounts possibly accessed and acquired people’s protected health information without their authorization.

In a press release posted Friday afternoon, county officials began notifying individuals regarding this incident in which a county employee’s e-mail account started sending “spam” e-mails.

“We immediately began an investigation, with the assistance of a nationally recognized digital forensics firm, to further understand what happened and to determine the scope of any access to county e-mail accounts,” county officials said. “Through our investigation, we discovered that an unauthorized ‘actor’ accessed some employees’ e-mail accounts between April 14 and 19, and some e-mails were accessed or downloaded during this time.”

Following this investigation, county officials launched a review of these e-mails to determine what information was involved and who this possibly affected.

On May 12, officials completed this review and began locating addresses to provide notices to affected individuals. On June 13, county officials mailed these notices to all impacted individuals for whom they could locate their address information.

In addition, county officials also notified the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regarding this investigation.

The county investigation determined the protected health information impacted by this incident included people’s names, dates of birth, dates of service, individual identification numbers as well as some medical information, the names of healthcare providers, certain diagnosis and treatment information, laboratory results and medications related to services received from County Emergency Medical Services.

“As a precautionary measure, the County urges potentially impacted individuals to take appropriate steps to protect their personal information by reviewing and monitoring any account statements, free credit reports and health insurance Explanation of Benefits forms for unauthorized or suspicious activity,” county officials said.

Officials added that people should immediately report any unauthorized or suspicious activity to the appropriate authorities, including local law enforcement.

“Additionally, if any individual notices health care services listed in their EOB that they did not receive, the county recommends that the individual contact their health plan or doctor,” county officials added.

Those who believe they were impacted by this incident and didn’t receive a notice letter can call the county’s toll-free assistance line at (833) 918-1243 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Mountain Standard Time from Monday through Friday, excluding major holidays. Callers should be prepared to provide the following engagement number: B146836.