In all the years her daughter has been treated at Lurie Children’s Hospital, Debora Land said she’s never experienced anything like this.
"My daughter is 18. She's been a patient at Lurie since she was 2," said Land.
From the onset of the ransomware attack that impacted the hospital, Land wasn’t able to access her child’s MyChart, until it came back online on the afternoon of March 13. MyChart is the online portal for appointments, test results and communication with her care team. Debora told NBC 5 Responds it's unclear if her daughter's personal information was compromised.
"It makes me concerned for the security of social security numbers and birthday information, address information," said Land. She said she's worried about what may happen to that information if it falls into the wrong hands.
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According to Land, Lurie Children’s Hospital has not been in touch with her to offer free credit monitoring.
NBC 5 Responds asked Lurie Children's Hospital if it plans to offer free credit monitoring to impacted families. It told us, in part: “As an academic medical center, our systems are highly complex and, as a result, the restoration process takes time. Working closely with our internal and external experts, we are following a careful process as we work towards full restoration of our systems, which includes verifying and testing each system before we bring them back online."
How to Protect Your Child’s Personal Information
Local
The non-profit group The Identity Theft Resource Center says in a situation like this, it really is on the parent to mitigate their child's risk of identity theft.
ITRC President and CEO Eva Velasquez said the best thing you can do to protect your child is freeze their credit. That way, no one will fraudulently open a line of credit in their name.
Steps to Freezing Your Child's Credit
Visit the websites for the three credit reporting bureaus: Equifax, Transunion, and Experian. You’ll need to fill out a form and provide a copy of either your driver’s license or government-issued ID, a copy of your social security card, or a copy of your birth certificate.
To prove you're the child’s parent or authorized guardian, you’ll need to provide a copy of the child’s social security card and their birth certificate.
The forms and all the documents must be sent via U.S. mail to all three credit reporting bureaus. There is no way to freeze your child’s credit online.
