A hacker has gained access to more than 10,000 email addresses at Combinatie Jeugdzorg (youth centre). About a thousand email addresses belong to clients of the care institution. It happened after an employee opened a so-called ‘phishing mail’.
The hacker gained access to the employee’s email address and subsequently to the more than 10,000 email addresses with which that account had communicated. The account in question was then closed to prevent further damage.
“The incident resulted in email addresses, particularly those of fellow institutions and other companies with which we do business, ending up outside our secure environment,” said Meia Maathuis, spokesperson for Combinatie Jeugdzorg.
Clients
However, Maathuis admits that around a thousand email addresses of clients of the healthcare institution were leaked. “The employee of the email account is not directly involved in the healthcare provision. This makes the risk of personal information leaking seem small. However, we are still investigating this carefully.”
Combinatie Jeugdzorg reports that they have informed everyone who emailed with the affected account about the incident. The further consequences of the data leak are still being investigated.
Adjustments
According to Maathuis, measures were taken immediately after the incident to prevent this from happening again. “A third party was brought in that specialises in cybercrime. They examined our systems and on their advice we immediately implemented a few adjustments.”
Source: Studio040
For Eindhoven News: Lila Mehrez
