Quest Diagnostics confirms patient data breach in the US — TechCrunch

In the United States, Quest Diagnostics confirmed a cyberattack on one of its laboratory systems, Quanum. During the unauthorized access, the attackers gained access to certain patient records. The company reported this in a Form 8-K filing submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, TechCrunch reports.

Attack on the Quanum system

The Quanum platform allows doctors’ offices, hospitals, and medical practices to order laboratory tests for patients and handle billing. The system stores medical data and patient records, as well as related diagnostic and payment information.

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Quest Diagnostics said it had notified law enforcement and was investigating the incident. In a notice on its website, the company also stated that patients’ protected health information, including personal data and patient records, had been obtained.

Scale of platform use

According to Quest, Quanum is used by about 500,000 clinicians at thousands of locations across North America. This is the second known large-scale Quest Diagnostics data breach in a decade: in 2019, 11.9 million patient records were lost as a result of a cyberattack on a third-party billing company.