Vermont hospital email hack exposes info of more than 72,000

RUTLAND, Vt. – Officials at a Vermont hospital say the information of more than 72,000 people may have been exposed during an email hack.

Rutland Regional Medical Center says the email accounts had information such as patient names, medical records and contact information, as well as more than 3,500 Social Security numbers.

The breach was first discovered in December after an employee noticed a large number of spam emails sent from their account.

Affected patients received letters from the hospital earlier this week.

Loyal Wescott, who received a letter Wednesday, tells WCAX-TV that he should have been notified weeks ago.

Hospital officials have not confirmed whether any information from the affected email accounts was accessed.

RRMC President and CEO Claudio Fort says the system has taken steps to prevent this from happening again.

___

Information from: WCAX-TV, http://www.wcax.com