Personal info for 34,000 Quest Diagnostics patients breached

MADISON — Quest Diagnostics, a New Jersey-based company that claims to have the "world's largest database of clinical lab results" is the latest target of a data breach

The Madison-based company said the name, date of birth, lab results, and in some instances, telephone numbers of 34,000 individuals ware breached by an unauthorized third party that accesses the MyQuest by Care360 internet application. Quest said Social Security numbers, credit card information, insurance or other financial information were not affected.

Is there anything you can do to protect yourself from future breaches?

"You really have to more prepare for the fact that it's going to happen to you some day, not how to keep it from happening," Dave Loudon, an IT consultant working with New Jersey 101.5, said.

"These things will get better as time goes on, but with big retailers like Target and Amazon getting compromised, it's not a matter of if a company will be compromised but more a matter of when. It's a matter of being informed who's got your data, what they data and knowing when it is that the data's been compromised."

Loudon said that like a credit card transaction, transmitted health care information goes through several steps that could be compromised.

"It's all transmitted electronically. It's not something you have a lot of control over. You want to make sure you know what data is out there and who has it, and demand the kinds of protections the law is only catching up to now," Loudon said.

Quest said it notified affected individuals via mail and established a dedicated toll-free number for questions regarding this incident. The number is 888-320-9970, and is available Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. (EST).

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com.

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