Data breaches at two French healthcare payment service providers, Viamedis and Almerys, could have exposed the personal information of 33 million French citizens.
Viamedis, France’s leading provider of medical third-party payment, confirmed on February 1 that it had suffered a data breach. Four days later, on February 5, Almerys, also experienced a similar incident.
Medical third-party payment is a French system in which a health insurance provider advances the patient fee for a medical service on behalf of the national social security services.
Viamedis and Almerys provide healthcare and insurance services with technological and administrative solutions to facilitate transactions.
They manage the sensitive data of policyholders required for granting reimbursements and generally streamline the payment process in France’s complex, multi-layered insurance coverage system.
Both breaches affect around 33 million French citizens. This makes the incident one of the most impactful cyberattacks in the country’s recent history, impacting nearly half its entire population.
The patients’ personal information, including names, birth dates, and social security numbers, could be exposed. Details of the victims’ contract with their health insurance could also have been compromised.
Although the extent of the breach is unknown, the French data privacy watchdog, the Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL), said that financial and medical data, as well as postal and email addresses, have not been affected by the breach.
Even though the exposed data does not include financial information, it is still enough to raise the risk of phishing scams, social engineering, identity theft, and insurance fraud for the exposed individuals.
If you suspect you are among the impacted, it is advisable to keep an eye on your accounts and treat incoming communications, especially solicitations concerning health insurance cost reimbursements, with suspicion.
Image Credits : Bleeping Computers
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