Main Street Clinical Associates, PA Data Breach (2019)

On April 10, 2019, the building adjacent to Main Street's office located in Durham, North Carolina suffered a severe gas explosion. The explosion forced Main Street's employees to immediately evacuate their office without the opportunity to properly store and secure patient information. At the time of the evacuation, certain patient files in use were left open and the file room containing patient records was unlocked. Due to the nature and extent of the damage to the building, Main Street's employees were prohibited from reentering the building until September 9, 2019. Upon reentry to their office on September 9, 2019, Main Street discovered that looters had unlawfully entered the office and stolen two laptop computers, a clinician's cell phone, and a printer that stored patient information. The computers and the cell phone were password-protected, and the client files stored on them were also password-protected. Main Street believes the unauthorized access to the building occurred sometime between July 15, 2019 and September 9, 2019.