Two Rivers Public Health Department Notification of Data Security Incident

KEARNEY, Neb., April 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Two Rivers Public Health Department ("TRPHD") announced today that it has taken action after learning of a data security incident which may have impacted certain individuals' personal information and/or protected health information. TRPHD began providing notice to all potentially impacted individuals on April 14, 2023.

What Happened? On or about November 9, 2022, TRPHD was notified of potential suspicious activity involving its server infrastructure. At the time, TRPHD's outside information technology firm advised that it did not appear that any security incident or breach of personal information and/or protected health information had occurred. Nonetheless, in an abundance of caution, TRPHD retained privacy counsel and an external forensic investigation firm to fully investigate the nature and scope of the incident. The external forensic investigation firm confirmed that the data security incident involved unauthorized access to one (1) TRPHD employee's Office365 account from on or about September 14, 2022 through November 8, 2022. 

What Information Was Involved? While the forensic investigation was inconclusive as to any access to or acquisition of personal information and/or protected health information within the impacted account, TRPHD undertook a comprehensive and time intensive review of the entire contents of the impacted account to determine the presence of any personal information and/or protected health information contained therein. The investigation identified the existence of certain personal information and/or protected health information within the impacted mailbox. This comprehensive review process was completed on or about March 15, 2023.

What TRPHD Are Doing As stated above, in addition to the security protocols already in place, immediately following identification of the data security incident, TRPHD changed all passwords associated with its email accounts and undertook additional security measures to secure its systems. TRPHD also retained a professional forensic investigation firm to determine the nature of the security compromise and identify any individuals whose personal information may have been compromised. Please be advised that TRPHD is continuing to identify and implement measures to further strengthen the security of its systems to help prevent this from happening in the future.

What You Can Do TRPHD is aware of how important personal information is to you. TRPHD began mailing notification letters on April 14, 2023 to the potentially impacted individuals for whom TRPHD had valid mailing addresses. Please note that it is entirely possible that any specific personal information may not have been compromised as a result of the incident. Nonetheless, TRPHD is providing notification of the incident in an abundance of caution. If an individual does not receive a letter, but would like to know if he or she was potentially impacted by this incident, or if an individual has any questions or would like additional information, they may call TRPHD's dedicated assistance line at (888) 919-0346 between the hours of 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. EST, Monday through Friday.

SOURCE Two Rivers Public Health Department