Federal agencies investigating after hackers access BU study, school says

Hackers accessed data from Boston University’s Framingham Heart Study in early September, compromising participants’ personal and medical information, the school said. 

An article published in BU Today, the university’s external publication, said hackers were able to download the files and information of all 15,448 participants. Hackers accessed around two percent of patients’ Social Security numbers, the school said.  

Joanne Murabito, a professor of medicine at the BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and FHS co–principal investigator, called the hack “really shocking” in the article.

“This has never happened before. The original cohort had participated for 75 years, and their children and grandchildren enrolled in the study,” she said. “We’re in this together, and we want to provide as much information as we can.”

FHS, founded in 1948, is one of the longest-running studies of its kind, according to its website. Its goal is to determine causes, common factors, or characteristics that contribute to cardiovascular disease. 

Officials trying to make sure ‘this does not happen again’

The incident happened on Sept. 8, the school said in the article. BU officials said IT specialists from both the university and FHS were able to quarantine the servers during the hack, preventing the scammers from accessing more information. 

BU’s vice president for Information Services & Technology told BU Today the study still has access to all of its data. An investigation into the hack led by Boston University, as well as federal public health and law enforcement agencies, is ongoing, the school said.

Stolen information included patients’ names, addresses, dates of birth, telephone numbers, email addresses, sex, race, ethnicity, self-reported income, occupations, signatures, and medical information, according to the article. The university sent out notices to all patients, specifying what information of theirs was stolen. 

“We have been working very closely with Boston University, and federal public health and law enforcement agencies, to understand how this happened, to put additional safeguards in place so this does not happen again, to understand the full impact this may have on our participants,” Murabito said in the article.

Eva Levin is a general assignment co-op for Boston.com. She covers breaking and local news in Boston and beyond.