On July 20, 2023, reports began to emerge about a data breach at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (“UTSW”). Evidently, UTSW indicates that the incident resulted in an unauthorized party being able to access patients’ sensitive information, which includes their names, Social Security numbers, medical record numbers, dates of birth, names of medication, dosages of medication and prescribing providers. UTSW also reported that it is in the process of sending out data breach notification letters to all individuals whose information was affected by the recent data security incident.

If you received a data breach notification from The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, it is essential you understand what is at risk and what you can do about it. While the data breach affecting UTSW did not involve the hospital’s own systems being compromised, the hospital’s use of the MOVEit file transfer software resulted in confidential patient information being leaked. A data breach lawyer can help you learn more about how to protect yourself from becoming a victim of fraud or identity theft as well as discuss your legal options following the UT Southwestern data breach. For more information, please see our recent piece on the topic here.

What Caused the UT Southwestern Breach?

The UT Southwestern data breach was only recently announced, and more information is expected in the near future. However, various news outlets have reported on the UTSW data breach after speaking with the hospital’s privacy office. According to these sources, on May 30, 2023, UTSW was notified that an unauthorized party was able to exploit a previously unknown vulnerability within the file transfer application MOVEit. Once hackers exploited the vulnerability, they were able to access information stored on the hospital’s MOVEit server.

After learning that sensitive patient data was accessible to an unauthorized party, UT Southwestern reviewed the compromised files to determine what information was leaked and which patients were impacted. While the breached information varies depending on the individual, it may include your name, Social Security number, medical record number, date of birth, name of medication, dosage of medication and prescribing provider.

On July 20, 2023, UT Southwestern announced that it was in the process of sending out data breach letters to anyone who was affected by the recent data security incident. These letters should provide victims with a list of which information of theirs was compromised.

More Information About The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Founded in 1943, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center is an academic medical center located in Dallas, Texas. The hospital provides medical care in approximately 80 specialties to more than 105,000 hospitalized patients. UTSW also handles nearly 370,000 emergency room visits and treats roughly 3 million patients each year through all types of outpatient visits. UT Southwestern employs more than 24,000 people and generates approximately $4.6 billion in annual revenue.