ADA Victimized By Cyber Attack

The American Dental Association (ADA) was hacked last Friday, April 22, and federal law enforcement has been notified and is working on an active investigation. While cooperating with the authorities on the investigation the ADA is limiting the amount of details it shares at this time, but has taken steps to notify its employees and members of the cybersecurity incident.

John Flucke, DDS, Chief Dental Editor of Dental Products Report®,says the ADA notified its membership Monday night, April 25. Additionally, the Nebraska Dental Association issued an email on behalf of the ADA on Monday to help notify all ADA members of the “technical difficulties faced by the ADA”.

The ADA announcement to its members states:

The ADA recently fell victim to a cybersecurity incident that has resulted in technical difficulties impacting certain systems. We are working around the clock to restore our systems and limit the disruption this incident causes you.

During this time, we are committed to keeping you informed. Here is an update on the current situation.

• On Friday, the ADA fell victim to a cybersecurity incident that caused a disruption to certain systems, including Aptify and ADA email, telephone and Web chat. Upon discovery, the ADA immediately responded by taking affected systems offline and commenced an investigation into the nature and scope of the disruption.
• Safeguarding employee and member information and data is the ADA’s utmost priority. We are working diligently with third-party cybersecurity specialists to investigate the impact on ADA systems and restore full system functionality. At this time, there is no indication any member information or other data has been compromised, however our investigation is still underway.
• Federal law enforcement has been notified and we are cooperating with them in this active investigation, so we ask for your understanding that we must limit the amount of detail that we can share at this time.

Protecting the privacy of our members and employees and ensuring the security of information stored on our systems are among our highest priorities. We have an active and vigorous investigation into the nature and scope of the technical difficulties. If we determine personal information was impacted as a result of this incident, we will notify affected parties pursuant to applicable law.

We understand you may have questions. The ADA is committed to providing accurate information regarding this incident and our response. We invite you to email questionsADA@gmail.com. Due to the nature of the investigation currently underway, we appreciate your understanding as we may not be able to share complete details for your inquiry at this time.

As we learn more, and if we discover important information relevant to you or your organization, we will provide updates. We appreciate your patience as we work to understand this incident and take all steps necessary to respond. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Dental Products Report® has reached out to the ADA for a comment and will provide updated information as it becomes available.