Palmetto Health

Profile narrative

Palmetto Health, operating under that alias, is a healthcare organization headquartered in the United States of America. As a provider of medical services, it routinely handles protected health information, including patient names, treatment details, consultation records, social security numbers, and medical insurance data. The organization’s core activities involve delivering clinical care to patients across various settings, which necessitates the collection and storage of sensitive personal data. In November 2018, Palmetto Health experienced a phishing attack that compromised employee email accounts. The unauthorized access exposed emails containing patient names, treatment details, and consultation records, with a smaller subset also revealing social security numbers and medical insurance data. Following an extended investigation, the organization identified nearly 24,000 individuals whose information was potentially affected by the breach.

Palmetto Health subsequently notified the impacted patients and reported the incident to federal regulators as required. The breach shared similarities with another contemporaneous phishing campaign that targeted a different healthcare entity, although the notification timelines differed between the two cases. Such incidents highlight the ongoing threat of credential‑theft emails to organizations that manage large volumes of sensitive health information. The response undertaken by Palmetto Health illustrates the typical steps of containment, investigation, and regulatory communication following a data exposure event. While the organization’s exact size, market reach, or ownership structure is not detailed in the available sources, its role as a custodian of protected health information places it within the regulated healthcare sector. Consequently, the known facts about Palmetto Health center on its healthcare mission, its U.S. headquarters, and the specific 2018 phishing incident that affected approximately twenty‑four thousand individuals.

Incidents

1 incident linked to this organisation.