Quest Diagnostics Reports Cyber Breach Affecting ‘Certain Patient Records’

The New Jersey-based company reported the incident in a Thursday regulatory filing, confirming that the breach involved its Quanum Lab Services Manager platform. This system allows clients to place test orders and access results. Quest Diagnostics has notified federal law enforcement about the security breach.

Scope Under Investigation

The company stated that while it believes 'certain patient records' were accessed during the breach, the exact number of affected individuals and specific records compromised remain unknown. Quest Diagnostics is working with external cybersecurity experts to determine the full extent of the incident.

Previous Breaches

This isn't the first time Quest Diagnostics has faced such security challenges. In 2016, data including lab results and contact information of about 34,000 people was exposed. Then in 2019, personal information belonging to approximately 11.9 million Quest patients was affected after a separate hack at American Medical Collection Agency, a billing collections service provider.

Wider Cybersecurity Concerns

Cyberattacks continue to rise across industries, with recent breaches disrupting supermarket chains and education applications. This week heightened urgency followed the discovery of vulnerabilities in PHP, a programming language used by 70% of websites globally. However, Quest Diagnostics confirmed its breach was not related to this PHP issue.