Utah Medical Records Breach More Extensive

Health officials in Utah say hackers who downloaded thousands of medical files from state computers last week stole far more personal information than originally thought.

The Utah Department of Health said Friday that nearly 182,000 recipients of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program had their personal information stolen. The department estimates more than 25,000 Social Security numbers were compromised.

Agency officials originally thought the hackers stole 24,000 Medicaid claims. But officials now say 24,000 files were stolen, and each file potentially contains information on hundreds of people.

Officials say the attack started last week and likely came from eastern Europe. The information was on a new server that had security tools installed improperly.

The agency says it plans to reach out to those affected and offer free credit monitoring services for one year.