1 min read

Elara Caring phishing attack exposes 100,000 patients' data

Sara Nguyen March 13, 2021

Healthcare cybersecurity news
Elara Caring logo

Elara Caring, a home-based care provider, recently announced that patient data may have been exposed after a security breach in December 2020. 

 

What happened?

Elara Caring was the victim of a phishing attack . On December 9, 2020, a phishing email was sent to employees which enabled a hacker to gain access to several employee accounts. Although Elara Caring detected the unauthorized access the same day, it wasn't able to contain the situation until December 16. Protected health information ( PHI ) may have been leaked during this data breach. As many as 100,400 patients had sensitive data exposed, including information like:
  • Name
  • Date of birth
  • Address
  • Phone number
  • Financial or bank account information
  • Social Security number
  • Insurance information
  • Driver’s license number

 

Elara Caring claims that there's no evidence that PHI was accessed or misused. Its investigation also concluded that malware wasn't released into its network.

 

How did Elara Caring respond to the data breach?

Elara Caring sent notification letters of the data breach to all affected patients and is offering to pay for a two-year membership of Experian services to monitor for potential fraud.  Elara Caring also made many internal changes. Some of these changes include:

 

How can Paubox help you prevent phishing attacks?

Robust cybersecurity is critical to ensuring that you are protecting patient data, but human error repeatedly proves to be the weakest link in the chain. How can you send HIPAA compliant email while making sure human error doesn't cause breaches? That's where Paubox Email Suite Plus comes in. Our inbound security tools stop threats from entering your employees' inboxes, which means they don't even get a chance to expose themselves to phishing, viruses , or spam . It even includes our patented ExecProtect that stops display name spoofing emails. Since Paubox is HITRUST CSR certified , you know that we take HIPAA compliant cybersecurity seriously. We implement safeguards like blanket TLS encryption and two-factor authentication to keep your emails safe. But don't worry—Paubox is easy to use. It can seamlessly integrate with your email provider, including Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 . Your employees send emails directly to a patient's inbox. There's no need for client portals or passwords.
 
Try Paubox Email Suite Plus for FREE today.
Start for free
Secure every email you send and receive HIPAA compliant. Threat-proof. Hassle-free.
provider with magnifying glass and computer code

10 security considerations for hospital management information systems

Gugu Ntsele : April 28, 2025

Hospital management information systems (HMIS) have become the backbone of efficient patient care delivery. However, these systems are also targets...

Healthcare cybersecurity news
Read More
mclaren logo

McLaren Health to pay $14M over back-to-back ransomware attacks

Picture of Tshedimoso Makhene Tshedimoso Makhene : February 12, 2026

McLaren Health Care has agreed to pay $14 million to resolve consolidated class-action lawsuits from two ransomware attacks that exposed the personal...

Healthcare cybersecurity news
Read More
Cochise Eye and Laser clinic website homepage with flowering cactus photo

Up to 100,000 patients affected by Arizona eye clinic breach

Ryan Ozawa : March 9, 2021

A January ransomware attack on Cochise Eye & Laser, based in Sierra Vista, Arizona, has put the electronic protected health information ( ePHI) of up...

Healthcare cybersecurity news
Read More

Subscribe to Paubox Weekly

Every Friday we bring you the most important news from Paubox. Our aim is to make you smarter, faster.