Wolfe Eye Clinic data breach may have exposed patients’ information

About half a million of Wolfe Eye Clinic’s current and former patients’ personal information may have been hacked earlier this year, the clinic said Tuesday.

The clinic said it was the target of a cybersecurity attack on Feb. 8.

“Given the complexity and scale of the cyberattack detected, the full scope of information potentially impacted was not fully realized until May 28, 2021,” the clinic’s website reads.

The clinic’s investigation, which concluded June 8, discovered personal information that may have been accessed included names, mailing addresses, dates of birth and Social Security Numbers as well as medical and health information.

The clinic said it is implementing “additional safeguards and enhanced security measures” to improve the privacy and security of its systems, a statement said.

The clinic will be notifying all potentially affected individuals with mailed letters. The clinic has hired identity-protection company IDX, based in Portland, Ore., to provide free identity monitoring to those individuals for a year.

Potentially affected patients can call IDX at (833)-909-3906 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday, for more information, the statement said.

Some individuals who tried calling the IDX number reported that it wasn’t working on Wednesday morning.

Wolfe Eye Clinic Director of Marketing and Public Relations Kassandra Trenary said that IDX reported some intermittent issues with their call center Wednesday morning

“They are working hard to repair it,” Trenary said. “It should be running again soon.

Wolfe Eye Clinic, headquartered in Hiawatha, has 20 Iowa facilities, including Hiawatha and Iowa City in the Corridor.

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