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also tonight the personal information of
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over a million people here in
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Connecticut has been compromised it's
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the result of a health care data breach
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NBC Connecticut's Melissa Cooney joins
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us live in Middletown with some news
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that you can use on this Melissa what
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here that's right Mike and Kesha this
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data breach involves the community
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health center here in Middletown where
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I'm standing now they say that some of
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the information that has potentially
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been accessed includes People's Health
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Insurance their personal data involving
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Health test results and diagnoses among
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other personal details I felt a little
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scared um a little worried Community
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Health Center patients like Hilda bang
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and her whole family received this
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notice warning over 1 million people
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that their personal Health Data had been
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accessed by criminal hacker I feel like
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Patients health um information should be
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more protected but now one in three
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people in our state have their
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information at risk according to Census
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Data this was a nationwide breach but
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the vast majority of patients are from
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Connecticut attorney General William
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Tong says 575,000 of them had all of
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their personal health information taken
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another 571 th000 had some of their
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information breached and over 4,000
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employees were impacted in a letter to
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patients the health clinic says they
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believe the hacker was stopped within
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hours and there's no sign the
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information has been misused the primary
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concern in these scenarios is identity
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theft University of New Haven cyber
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security expert vahed bezan says a
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breach with with this type of
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information can cause a real risk for
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consumers he warns impacted patients to
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stay vigilant for suspicious activity in
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your credit profile or insurance and to
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look out for suspicious messages coming
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from people pretending to be a
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healthcare provider or from insurance
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unauthorized disclosure of um Health
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Care uh information such as diagnosis
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test results and medications that
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patients may be on can be a breach of
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personal privacy as well as professional
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privacy he recommends holders like the
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community health center do routine
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vulnerability and security monitoring to
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try to get ahead of any breaches in
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light of this the clinic says they're
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strengthening their security and adding
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software to watch for suspicious
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activity and the community health center
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says everyone impacted by this breach is
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being notified they're also offering 2
2:19
years of free credit monitoring of
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course if you're concerned that you've
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been impacted you can also freeze your
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credit right now live in Middletown
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Melissa Cooney NBC Connecticut news
