More than 400,000 Planned Parenthood patients' data was exposed after hackers attacked the organization

• Planned Parenthood said it was hacked, and about 400,000 patients' personal data was exposed.
• The breach specifically involved the Los Angeles branch of Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood earlier this week sent letters to about 400,000 patients informing them that some of their personal data had been exposed in a hack, the Washington Post first reported.

The information that was stolen includes patient names and "one or more of the following: address, insurance information, date of birth, and clinical information, such as diagnosis, procedure, and/or prescription information," the healthcare provider told patients.

The data breach was isolated to the Los Angeles branches of Planned Parenthood, spokesperson John Erickson told the Washington Post. That's 21 locations in total, affecting patients from Beverly Hills to Burbank and Compton.

"At this time, we have no evidence that any information involved in this incident has been used for fraudulent
purposes," Planned Parenthood compliance officer Kevin Oliver said in the letter sent to patients.

Still, Oliver suggested all patients impacted in the breach pay closer attention to "statements you receive from your health insurer and health care providers," out of an abundance of caution.

Planned Parenthood apologized for the breach and said it's beefing up its data security, but the organization isn't providing complimentary data protection or identity protection services to those affected. When Equifax had a massive data breach back in 2017, for instance, it offered complimentary credit monitoring services to the more than 140 million affected parties.

The hack, which the nonprofit said it first detected in mid October, was a ransomware attack: A hacker or hackers infiltrates a network, locks or deletes all the data, and only promises to make things right after a ransom is paid. When hackers attacked the Colonial Pipeline, they used ransomware to earn over $90 million.

It's unclear if Planned Parenthood paid the ransom to regain access to its network.

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