HHS OCR breach portal (HIPAA breaches affecting 500 or more individuals) Primary notice
Posted on the HHS Office for Civil Rights breach portal with a submission date of Sept. 13, 2019.
- Organization as reported
- Sweetser, ME
- Entity type as reported
- Healthcare Provider
- Category as reported
Hacking/IT Incident
- Location of information as reported
- Submission date
- Sept. 13, 2019
- Observed by BreachRecords
- 2026-10-18 16:15 UTC (revision 13222, row:4361)
- Archived copy
- Held in the private archive (provenance)
The covered entity (CE), Sweetser, reported that several employees were the victims of an email phishing attack that affected the electronic protected health information (ePHI) of 22,000 individuals. The ePHI involved included names, addresses, dates of birth, drivers’ license numbers, Social Security numbers, claims information, medical conditions, health insurance information, and other treatment information. The CE notified HHS, affected individuals, the media, and provided complimentary identity protection and credit monitoring services. In response to the breach, the CE implemented additional policies and procedures to enhance their IT security infrastructure and provided additional security awareness training to its employees. OCR provided technical assistance to the CE and obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions noted.