Oregonians Urged to Activate Credit Monitoring Following OHP Connected Data Breach
By Garrett Christensen on Thursday, August 3rd, 2023 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
OREGON – (Release from the Oregon Health Authority) Following Performance Health Technology’s (PH TECH) announcement that Oregon Health Plan (OHP) members are among those affected by a coordinated data hack, the state is urging OHP members to take steps to protect their personal information.
The data breach PH TECH announced today did not involve or compromise state systems.
PH TECH is a private vendor that provides services to many Coordinated Care Organizations (CCOs) to help manage OHP member data. The company said a security vulnerability from Progress MOVEit software resulted in a data breach because attackers were able to access the personal information of an estimated 1.7 million members.
PH TECH told state officials they conducted extensive forensic analysis through July 25. This analysis identified individuals who were affected so OHP members could be notified. PH TECH began mailing notification letters on July 31 to impacted individuals. The letters will include an offer of free credit monitoring.
“We’re urging OHP members to activate credit monitoring as a precaution,” said Dave Baden, interim director at OHA. “It’s disheartening that bad actors are looking to exploit people in our state and that their actions create a burden for others, who have more than enough to manage already. However, there are important steps that OHP members can take to further protect their data.”
Baden called on PH TECH to ensure all affected OHP members would be made aware of the incident, communication would occur in multiple languages, talking points would be created, and state officials would be briefed on the progress of these actions.
OHP members are encouraged to:
- Watch for additional information from PH in the mail and follow instructions to activate 12 months of free identity theft protection. OHP members will be contacted by regular first-class mail, not by phone or email.
- Request a free credit report. OHP members have the right to request one free copy of their credit report from each of the three major consumer reporting companies (Equifax, TransUnion and Experian) every year. OHP members may be able to request reports from one company every few months throughout the year. Credit reports and monitoring can help people identify signs of identity theft and stop thieves from using information for fraudulent purposes.
- Contact PH TECH for assistance at 888-498-1602 or by going to https://response.idx.us/PHTECH for more information.
OHP members will also be able to receive ID theft recovery services via PH TECH at no cost, if needed.
