Deborah Rand said her daughter has been treated at Lurie Children's Hospital for years and has never experienced anything like this.
“My daughter is 18 years old. She's been a Lurie patient since she was 2 years old,” Rand said.
Since the ransomware attack that affected the hospital, Rand was unable to access her child's MyChart until it came back online on the afternoon of March 13th. MyChart is your online portal for booking appointments, test results, and communicating with your care. team. Deborah told NBC 5 Responds that she doesn't know if her daughter's personal information was compromised.
“I'm concerned about the security of my Social Security number, my birthday information, my address information,” Rand said. She worries about what would happen if that information fell into the wrong hands, she said.
Rand said Lurie Children's Hospital has not contacted her to provide a free credit check.
NBC 5 asked Lurie Children's Hospital if it plans to offer free credit monitoring to affected families. It reads in part: “As an academic medical center, our systems are highly complex and, as a result, the recovery process is slow. We work closely with internal and external experts to improve our systems. We are following a careful process to fully restore our systems, including validating and testing each system before bringing it back online.”
How to protect your child's personal information
The nonprofit Identity Theft Resource Center says that in situations like this, it's the parents' responsibility to reduce their children's risk of identity theft.
Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of ITRC, said the best thing you can do to protect your child is to freeze their credit. That way, no one will fraudulently open a line of credit in your name.
Steps to freeze your child's credit
Visit the websites of the three credit bureaus: Equifax, Transunion, and Experian. You must fill out a form and provide a copy of your driver's license or government-issued ID, a copy of your Social Security card, or a copy of your birth certificate.
To prove that you are a parent or authorized guardian of a child, you must provide a copy of the child's Social Security card and birth certificate.
The form and all documentation must be sent by mail to all three credit bureaus in the United States. There is no way to freeze your child's credit online.
