Beaumont Hack Allowed 2,700 Unauthorized Covid Vaccine Appointments

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(Photo: Wayne State University)

Beaumont Health’s Covid vaccine schedule was hacked Saturday, allowing 2,700 people to “cut in line” and register for unauthorized appointments.

"The Beaumont team determined a user took advantage of an Epic scheduling tool vulnerability and shared an unauthorized scheduling pathway publicly," the hospital said in a press release.

The eight-hospital network cancelled appointments that used the rogue method and will notify those people by email. It notified the software vendor, Epic Systems Corp. of Verona, Wis., so it could prevent other hacks.

“These appointments violate the ethical distribution framework Beaumont created based upon the State of Michigan’s mandatory vaccine guidelines," Beaumont executive Hans Keil said in a statement. "We regret 2,700 people in our community became victims of this unfortunate incident.

Keil, a senior vice president and chief information officer, added: "We remain committed to vaccinating as many people as possible who meet the state’s guidelines."

Beaumont says it has gice 55,836 first-dose vaccines through Monday morning and 20,142 "booster" shots for full immunity.

Last month, so many people looking to sign up flooded the electronic myBeaumontChart system that the website crashed.

In the first quarter of 2020, Beaumont Health notified about 114,000 patients that their personal data was potentially breached as a result of a hack on several employee email accounts in 2019.