(ECNS) -- A provincial hospital in eastern China says it was the victim of hackers after video clips of nearly 6,000 infants born in the hospital were found on the Internet.
The Anhui Province Maternal and Child Healthcare Hospital, located in the provincial capital of Hefei City, said the hacked videos were of sick babies hospitalized from 2014 to February 2015.
The hospital started offering online access for parents to monitor the conditions of their hospitalized infants in 2014. It then transferred video clips of the infants to parents through the instant messaging software QQ starting in early 2015, a policy that it said was warmly welcomed by parents.
Videos from the hospital of 5,793 infants have been found on commercial websites, reported local news portal anhuinews.com.
A mother said that personal information of her baby, including name, gender and diagnostic information, is visible on the leaked video.
She also said the infant was put in the hospital's incubator for several days to cure jaundice, which she monitored at home through a hospital-provided user ID and password.
The mother said she felt troubled by various sales calls touting baby photography or postnatal care products and wondered who had revealed her personal data.
The hospital apologized to the parents, saying it reported the theft to police and pledged to take legal action against websites that shared the videos.
No information about the parent's addresses or phone numbers were included in the videos, it added.
