UC Davis Doctor’s Email Hacked

An intruder compromised protected patient information in a physician’s professional email account.

The information technology breach, which occurred at the University of California Davis Medical Center, was discovered a day after the incident.

"Our IT team has undertaken a review of the event, but the exact root cause of the incident remains unknown. We do not see evidence of a phishing attack,” said Shara Merritt Reed, privacy program director at UC Davis Health System. "We hesitate to speculate but deduce the credentials were obtained by other means in order to utilize the account."

Providers at the academic medical center use their email for scheduling, referrals and other patient care purposes. "When this happens, limited amounts of patient information may be included in the provider's email account," Reed said in an Oct. 3 letter mailed to affected patients.