Names, SSN May Have Been Exposed In Mercer Co. Hospital Cyberattack

MERCER COUNTY, NJ — Important patient information including names, social security numbers, date of birth and clinical information may have been compromised during a cyberattack on Capital Health last year, hospital officials said.

Capital Health has three locations in Mercer County — Trenton, Pennington and Hamilton.

The hospital said it was currently working to determine who has been impacted and and exact nature of the data affected by the breach.

On Nov. 28, 2023, Capital Health experienced network outages due to a cybersecurity incident.

According to investigation, an “unauthorized actor” gained access to the hospital’s systems from Nov. 11 - 26, 2023. On Dec. 1, 2023, the forensic investigation determined that the third party acquired and/or accessed certain files on the organization’s network.

“At this point, we have found no evidence that personal information or protected health information has been misused,” Capital Health said in a statement.

The hospital said the data breach was consistent with other cyber breach incidents which impacted several other industries.

An investigation was launched with help from a leading outside forensic security firm to determine the nature and scope of the cyber attack and confirm the security of the hospital's computer systems and network.

“We also reported the incident to law enforcement,” hospital officials said.

Capital health officials said they believe there is a possibility that the following information may have been exposed: names, addresses, social security numbers, dates of birth, email addresses, telephone numbers and potentially clinical information.

“Out of an abundance of caution, and in accordance with applicable law, we are providing this notice to you so that you can take steps to minimize the risk that your information will be misused. We have included a brief description of steps you can take to protect your identity, credit, and personal information” the hospital said.

Beginning Friday potentially affected customers should contact IDX with any questions and to enroll in identity protection services at no cost by calling 888-906-4476. IDX representatives are available Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The deadline to enroll is April 30.

For more information on steps to take to protect customer information, click here.

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