Data breach at Laboratory Services Cooperative (LSC) exposed the sensitive health and personal information of 1.6 million individuals linked to select Planned Parenthood centers. Learn if you’re affected and what data was compromised.
A US-based lab testing services provider, Laboratory Services Cooperative (LSC), has confirmed that hackers broke into their computer systems in October 2024 and got the personal information of about 1.6 million people.
For your information, LSC is a non-profit group in Seattle, Washington. It started working with different Planned Parenthood centres at different times, some only in the last few years. It currently provides lab testing for centres run by Planned Parenthood in around 31 US states.
The company, reportedly, noticed unusual activity on October 27, 2024, and collaborated with third-party forensics specialists for investigation. It was identified that an unauthorized third party gained access to and removed certain files from its network.
The company quickly launched investigation to identify who got impacted and by February 2025, they learned that some information about LSC’s patients and workers might have been involved. Now, LSC has confirmed that around 1.6million people were impacted, and very sensitive details like people’s names, Social Security numbers (SSNs), driver’s license numbers, and how they were billed could be exposed.
In addition, protected health information (PHI) was also disclosed, including service dates, diagnoses, treatment details, medical record numbers, lab results, patient/accession numbers, provider names, treatment locations, and health insurance details such as plan type and name, member or group IDs, and company name.
For people who worked at LSC, the exposed information could also include details about their family members if they had given that information to the company. The exact information that was taken is different for each person, depending on how they were connected to LSC.
The nature of the breach, whether ransomware was used or an extortion attempt occurred, has not been disclosed by the company. Nevertheless, it is informing people who had lab work done at these specific Planned Parenthood locations, or whose bills paid for this work, that their information might have been compromised. However, not all Planned Parenthood centres used LSC’s services, so not everyone who went to Planned Parenthood is affected.
As a safety measure, LSC has hired computer security experts to watch the dark web for leaking of any information from this hacking incident. So far, they have not found any proof that the stolen information is on the dark web. LSC advises individuals to regularly review their financial accounts and monitor credit reports for suspicious activity.
Moreover, LSC has launched a website (LSCIncidentSupport.com) to provide information about the incident and offer protection measures, including free credit check services and medical identity protection through CyEx Medical Shield Complete. A toll-free number, 1-855-549-2662, is also available Monday to Friday for further support.
Chris Hauk, Consumer Privacy Champion at Pixel Privacy, shared their thoughts on the latest development, warning customers that “those who may have had their data exposed in the LSC breach will need to stay alert for phishing attempts, new accounts being opened under their name, calls claiming to be bill collectors, and more. Affected parties should take advantage of any credit monitoring services that may be offered by LSC.”
Image by Tung Nguyen from Pixabay
