The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recommends that organizations hit by ransomware attacks report such incidents to state and federal authorities immediately. It also advises against paying any ransom demands, as that does not guarantee the return of data and can make organizations the subject of repeated attacks for more payoffs by the same attackers, according to Health IT Security.

Gastroenterology Consultants has offered complimentary credit monitoring and identity theft restoration services to those whose social security numbers were affected. It did not tell KHOU 11 the reason for delaying notifying patients but said it has revised its protocols to prevent future issues.

"We, unfortunately, learned that the time and effort to manually review thousands of documents was not cost-effective. Therefore, although there is no evidence of any unauthorized use of patient or employee data, we have determined it best to issue mail notifications to all employees and patients detailing the specific type of information potentially exposed," it said on its site.

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