Evansville hospital warns 4,400 patients of hacker attack

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) – An Evansville hospital has informed about 4,400 patients that hackers may have stolen their personal information during an attack on hospital employees’ email accounts.

St. Mary’s Medical Center spokesman Randy Capehart says the hackers accessed emails that contained names, date of birth, gender, insurance information, health information and in some cases, Social Security numbers.

St. Mary’s says it shut down the employees’ email accounts as soon as the January attack was detected.

Capehart tells the Evansville Courier & Press it’s unclear if the patients’ information was shared “because the shutdown was so quick.”

Hospital officials who recently sent letters to the 4,400 affected patients say none of them have reported identify theft.

Those patients can obtain a free credit report from the Equifax, Experian and TransUnion credit reporting bureaus.