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Craneware, the Edinburgh-based maker of billing software used by thousands of US hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies, disclosed on Monday that hackers stole a significant volume of data from its network. The company set out the breach in a statement filed with the London Stock Exchange.
Craneware said the attackers appear to have been expelled from its systems, though the investigation is still ongoing. It did not spell out exactly what was taken, noting only that a percentage of employee data, along with some customer and partner records, had been exfiltrated. The firm did not say whether patient information was among the stolen files, and it was not clear whether its own email systems were working during the response.
The scale of the exposure matters because of what Craneware holds. Its software helps healthcare providers bill patients, so it processes large volumes of medical and patient records on their behalf. When the firm bought Florida pharmacy software maker Sentry in 2021, it gained access to 147 million patient records collected over two decades.
Attacks on billing and software suppliers give criminals a single route into many providers at once. By breaching one vendor, they can reach patient data held across hundreds of hospitals and pharmacies, then press the company for payment under threat of leaking it.
Chief executive Keith Neilson did not immediately respond to questions about the incident or whether the attackers had made any ransom demand.
The breach is the latest to hit a technology supplier serving US healthcare. In March, revenue-cycle firm TriZetto confirmed hackers stole the personal and health data of more than 3.4 million people, and records vendor CareCloud reported a separate intrusion into its store of electronic health records. Last July, medical billing company Episource began notifying at least 5.4 million people that their information had been taken. The largest such breach on record hit Change Healthcare in 2024, exposing data on at least 192 million people.
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