Partners For Quality, Inc. Provides Notice Of Data Breach

MCKEES ROCKS, Pa., April 19, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Partners for Quality, Inc. ("PFQ") is providing notice of a recent incident involving potential unauthorized access to personal information. To date, PFQ has not received any reports that personal information has been misused as a result of this incident.

On February 19, 2019, PFQ became aware of unusual activity relating to certain employee email accounts. PFQ quickly launched an investigation to determine what may have happened and what information may have been affected.  With the assistance of third-party forensic investigators, we determined that three employee email accounts were subject to unauthorized access between January 19, 2019 and February 27, 2019.  These email accounts were then reviewed to determine whether they contained any protected health or personal information.   On April 15, 2019, PFQ confirmed that the email accounts subject to unauthorized access contained protected health information of certain individuals and the identities of the individuals relating to this personal information. Although unaware of any actual or attempted misuse of any information contained in the email accounts, PFQ is providing notice to individuals in an abundance of caution.

The investigation in this matter confirmed that the following types of personal information related to PFQ clients and employees were located in the email accounts subject to unauthorized access: name, date of birth, Social Security number, diagnosis or treatment information, medical record number, billing/claims information, health insurance information, driver's license number, passport information, banking or financial account number, credit / debit card information, PIN numbers, and username and password.  To date, PFQ has not received any reports of the misuse of this information.

PFQ takes this incident and the security of personal information seriously.  Upon learning of this incident, PFQ moved quickly to confirm whether personal information may have been affected by this incident, to identify the individuals related to this personal information, to put in place resources to assist them, and to provide them with notice of this incident. PFQ is reviewing its existing policies and procedures and implementing additional safeguards to protect information stored in its systems. PFQ reported this incident to law enforcement and is notifying state regulators, as required. PFQ will also mail notice letters to individuals whose information was contained within the impacted accounts and for whom they had a postal address.  

Please visit PFQ's website at www.pfq.org for more information.  Potentially affected individuals may also consider the information and resources outlined below.

PFQ encourages potentially impacted individuals to remain vigilant against incidents of identity theft and fraud, to review account statements, and to monitor their credit reports and explanation of benefits forms for suspicious activity.  Individuals may contact the three major credit reporting agencies for advice on how to obtain free credit reports and how to place fraud alerts and security freezes on credit files. The relevant contact information is below:

Potentially impacted individuals may also find information regarding identity theft, fraud alerts, security freezes and the steps they may take to protect their information by contacting the credit bureaus, the Federal Trade Commission or their state Attorney General. The Federal Trade Commission can be reached at: 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC  20580; www.identitytheft.gov; 1-877-ID-THEFT (1-877-438-4338); and TTY: 1-866-653-4261.

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SOURCE Partners for Quality, Inc.