PFC – US Debt Collector Breached

Professional Finance Company a US debt collector from Colorado has reported a data breach affecting 1.9 million individuals across over 650 different healthcare providers.

An unauthorized intruder accessed personal data including names, addresses, amount owing, and information regarding payments made to accounts. Some individuals also had their social security number, date of birth, and health insurance and medical treatment information exposed.

The ransomware attack noticed on February 26. It bought in forensics experts and informed law enforcement but did not inform healthcare providers until early May.

Though it did not disclose the number of individuals affected, a listing on the Department of Health and Human Services website revealed that 1,918,841 individuals were affected by the breach.

PFC is contacting individuals potentially affected by the breach and will offer them free credit monitoring.

The breach is currently investigated, which would be the second largest under investigation this year. The first was a breach of two million records reported in May by Shields Health Care Group. That attack potentially affected 2 million records.