Covid-19 tests: Paris hospitals victims of massive theft of health data – franceinfo

Personal data of around 1.4 million people, who tested for Covid-19 in Ile-de-France in mid-2020, have been stolen “following a computer attack”, announced Wednesday September 15 the Public Assistance-Hospitals of Paris (AP-HP).

This attack was “conducted during the summer and confirmed on September 12”, AP-HP said in a statement, which added that it had lodged a complaint on Wednesday with the Paris prosecutor, as did the Ministry of Health.

The facts were also reported to the National Commission for Informatics and Freedoms (Cnil) and the National Information Systems Security Agency (Anssi).

The hackers did not target the national drug testing file (SI-DEP) but “a secure file sharing service”, used “very occasionally in September 2020” to send information to the Health Insurance and regional health agencies (ARS) “useful for ‘contact tracing'”.

This data includes “the identity, social security number and contact details of those tested”, as well as “the identity and contact details of the healthcare professionals taking charge of them, the characteristics and the result of the test carried out”, but do not contain “no other medical data”.

In total, “the stolen files concern around 1.4 million people, almost exclusively for tests carried out in mid-2020 in Ile-de-France”, specifies the AP-HP, assuring that those concerned “will be informed individually in the coming days”.