Heartland Alliance Provides Notice of Data Security Incident

PRESS RELEASE

CHICAGO, Dec. 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Heartland Alliance ("Heartland"), a social justice and human rights organization headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, has experienced a data security incident that may have involved personal and protected health information belonging to employees, directors, independent contractors, and certain individuals who sought health care or participated in other Heartland programs.

Heartland is not aware of misuse of any information impacted by this incident. Nevertheless, out of an abundance of caution, beginning on December 15, 2022, Heartland provided notice of the incident to potentially affected individuals, including information about steps they can take to protect their personal and protected health information.

For context, on or around January 26, 2022, Heartland discovered a potential data security incident impacting certain systems. Upon discovering the incident, Heartland immediately secured its network and engaged cybersecurity experts to investigate. The investigation revealed that certain personal information may have been accessed without authorization. The potentially affected personal and protected health information included names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, bank account numbers, and some pieces of medical or health information. Different information on this list may have been accessed for different people.

In addition to the notice sent to potentially affected individuals, Heartland is offering complimentary credit monitoring and identity protection services, as well as providing a toll-free call center to answer questions about the incident and address related concerns. Representatives are available Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM Central Timeat (833) 896-6542.

The privacy and security of personal and protected health information are very important to Heartland. Immediately after we learned of this incident, we enhanced our IT security by adding new threat detection software, monitoring, and sign-in protocols. We deeply regret any inconvenience or concern this incident may have caused.

SOURCE Heartland Alliance