A hacker organization that opposes Planned Parenthood claims to have posted online a database containing the names and emails of employees of the women's health clinic, according to The Daily Dot.
The attack does not appear to expose personal data of patients or employees of Planned Parenthood's affiliate organizations, according to the report.
The attack was politically motivated, one of the hackers told The Daily Dot, using the pseudonym "E."
"Trying to mold an atrocious monstrosity into socially acceptable behaviors is repulsive," E told The Daily Dot. "Obviously what [Planned Parenthood] does is an ominous practice. It'll be interesting to see what surfaces when [Planned Parenthood] is stripped naked and exposed to the public."
The hackers, who call themselves 3301, also plan to decrypt and release other internal Planned Parenthood emails, though none have yet been released.
Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood's U.S. federation, told The Daily Dot the organization is investigating the hackers' claims. "We've seen the claims around attempts to access our systems," she said. "We take security very seriously and are investigating. It's unsurprising that those opposed to safe and legal abortion are participating in this campaign of harassment against us and our patients, and claiming to stoop to this new low."
Planned Parenthood has notified the Justice Department and the FBI, Ms. Laguens told The Washington Post.
The hackers gained access to the website by exploiting error messages from the website's database, according to The Daily Dot.
More articles on data breaches:
Criminal fraud data breach affects 5,300 Healthfirst members
7 states update data breach notification laws in 2015
Patient files class-action lawsuit against UCLA Health over data breach