Posted On May 20, 2023 Consumer Privacy & Data Breaches
May 20 – Great Expressions Dental Centers (Great Expressions) notified the Texas Attorney General’s office on May 17, 2023, of a data breach after discovering that a third party had gained access to sensitive patient information from the company’s servers. According to the company’s report, the situation led to a third party obtaining the full names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, driver’s license numbers, bank account details, credit card details, protected health information, and phone numbers of patients. Great Expressions confirmed a data compromise involving patient information and immediately started notifying those who were affected by the letter.
Console & Associates, P.C.’s data breach lawyers are now looking into the data breach at Great Expressions Dental Centers. We are giving free consultations to anybody who has received a breach notice from Great Expressions and are interested in learning about the dangers of identity theft, what they can do to protect themselves, and possible options for financial compensation.
Founded in Southfield, Michigan, and now operating more than 300 sites throughout the United States, Great Expressions Dental Centers is a nationwide network of dental clinics offering a full spectrum of dental treatment to its consumers, including cosmetic dentistry, teeth whitening, emergency dental, oral hygiene, etc. Great Expressions Dental Centers has been around since 1975, and in that time, it has grown to employ over 1,667 individuals and earn about $97,000,000 in yearly revenue.
In a recent statement filed with the Texas Attorney General, Great Expressions said that it had discovered a possible data security breach impacting its IT network. As a result, Great Expressions took precautions to protect its network, notified authorities, and launched an investigation with the assistance of outside data security experts.
The Great Expressions investigation established that from February 17, 2023 to February 22, 2023, an unauthorized person had accessed the company’s computer network. Great Expressions discovered that some of the files that were accessed included private patient information.
Great Expressions Dental Centers examined the affected files to ascertain what information had been compromised and which patients were impacted as soon as the company was made aware that confidential patient information had been made accessible to an unauthorized entity. Your full name, Social Security number, date of birth, driver’s license number, information about your bank accounts, credit and debit card details, protected health information, and phone number might all have been compromised; however, the specifics may differ by person.
Great Expressions Dental Centers notified all those whose information was affected as a consequence of the incident on May 17, 2023, by sending data breach letters.
If Great Expressions notifies you of a data breach, it means that your private information, including your full name and Social Security number, may now be in the hands of an unknown party.
With those two pieces of private data, a hacker is capable of numerous things. Fraud and identity theft often include the exploitation of social security numbers. Additionally, that data may be offered for sale on the dark web to someone trying to commit crimes using your information. Once hackers have the very minimum of information on you, it’s simple for them to get more, which opens the door to a wide range of offenses.
The consumer privacy lawyers at Console & Associates, P.C. help customers affected by data and security breaches pursue legal solutions by offering free consultations. By explaining your rights in clear, concise terms, we help you make an informed decision about your next steps. If you are a victim of the Great Expressions Dental data breach, Console & Associates, P.C. will investigate at no charge to you and offer advice on how to proceed. If you decide to pursue a case, rest assured that we don’t get paid unless you do. If your claim is successful, legal fees are either paid out of the funds recovered or by the defendant. If your claim is not successful, you pay nothing.
To schedule your free consultation, just call (866) 778-5500 today or fill out our secure contact form.
Below is a portion of the notice posted on their website:
Great Expressions Dental Centers (“GEDC”) is committed to protecting the security and privacy of the information we maintain. On May 12, 2023, we began mailing notification letters to patients whose information may have been involved in a security incident that disrupted the operations of some of our IT systems.
We initially identified the incident when we experienced unusual activity on our systems, and we immediately took steps to secure our systems, launched an investigation with the assistance of a third-party forensic investigator, and notified law enforcement. The investigation determined that an unauthorized party accessed some of our systems between February 17, 2023 and February 22, 2023, and may have accessed or removed some files. We then initiated a review and analysis of those files to determine what information they contained, which is still in progress.
On April 19, 2023, through our ongoing analysis of the files that may have been involved in the incident, we determined that the files contained information belonging to some GEDC patients. The information varied per patient, but could have included one or more of the following: patient names, dates of birth, contact information, mailing addresses, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, financial account information, credit or debit card numbers, diagnosis and treatment information, medical and dental history, dental examination information, charting information, treatment plans, x-ray images, dates of service, provider names, GEDC office of treatment, billing records, costs of services, prescription information and/or health insurance information. Importantly, GEDC’s electronic medical records system was NOT involved in the incident.
For patients whose information may have been involved in the incident, we recommend that they review the statements they receive from their healthcare providers and contact the relevant provider immediately if they see services they did not receive. We also encourage patients to remain vigilant to the possibility of fraud by reviewing their financial statements for any unauthorized activity and immediately reporting any unauthorized activity to their financial institution.
We take this incident very seriously and sincerely regret any concern this may cause. To help prevent something like this from happening again, we have implemented additional safeguards and technical security measures to further protect and monitor our systems. A dedicated call center has been established to answer questions about this incident, which can be reached at (866) 347-3591, Monday through Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Central Time.
