FBI investigates data breach, COVID-19 patients' identities possibly leaked: Reports

United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating a data breach that occurred at a third-party server used by the Department of Health and law enforcement.

According to reports, the FBI believes that the identities and information of COVID-19 patients in South Dakota may have been exposed. The servers that were breached belong to a web development company called Netsential.com.

Identities of COVID-19 patients compromised

The database that was hacked was used by law enforcement to keep first responders like, police, firefighters, and paramedics safe when answering calls by allowing them to take the proper precautions. In a big relief, the report mentions that no information regarding the patient’s financial records, social security, or internet passwords was stolen.

As per John Hopkins coronavirus resource centre, the US has reported over 5.5 million positive coronavirus cases and has a death toll of over 175,000 deaths. The US is at present the epicentre of the virus as it has the most number of cases, the is followed by Brazil which has reported more than 3.5 million coronavirus cases and has a death toll of more than 110,000 people.

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Meanwhile, earlier this week Russia shocked the world as it announced that it had developed a COVID-19 vaccine. Russia’s perspective vaccine called ‘Sputnik V’ is currently going through final testing. Countries like Iran that have suffered greatly from the virus have stated that they will hold off on purchasing the Russian COVID-19 vaccine until it gets approval from the World Health Organisation.

The COVID-19 pandemic which saw its first outbreak in a wet market in Wuhan, China last year has now spread all across the world. The virus, named COVID-19 by the World Health Organisation, has infected over 23 million people worldwide with the global death toll reaching over 800,000.

(With agency inputs)

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