What to do if your personal information is compromised from a data breach

BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) -A data breach at Community Health Systems could’ve compromised the personal information of up to a million people.

The healthcare giant, parent company to Merit Health in Biloxi, has released a statement saying it doesn’t believe the breach reached the hospital level.

In a press release, the company acknowledged personal information about patients, a limited number of employees, and other individuals may have been disclosed to the unauthorized party due to the Fortra incident.

Cyber security expert. Jaime Gruich said breaches happen all the time.

“Breaches happen every day. It’s just that the consumer is not aware of them. The largest breaches that happen, it is a requirement of the institution to report that in a public stance to allow the consumer to know there’s a breach in the organization,” Gruich said.

Although there are limited things to do when there’s a breach, customers can still ask questions to make sure their information was not compromised.

“If the breach occurs at a financial institution, they should not be too alarmed, but they should contact their financial institution and check their accounts and make sure that the transactions on their account are ones that actually performed,” Gruich said.

Gruich said many hackers send phishing messages to customers via email and text messages.

“People should understand no healthcare provider will reach out to the consumer via text messages or email asking for social security number. If the consumer gets something like that, they need to verify with their healthcare provider if they really need that information,” Gruich said.

Finding out a breach possibly compromised your personal information can be alarming. The key is to be informed and stay updated with the latest information.

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