Abbott Digs Into Two Cyber Incidents at Its Cancer Diagnostics Arm

Key points

• Abbott Laboratories confirmed on November 2025 that intruders reached older internal systems belonging to Exact Sciences, its Cancer Diagnostics business.
• A separate group is claiming it stole data from LabCentral, a portal Abbott uses for lab research, and is trying to extort the company.
• Abbott says patient care and its main clinical systems have not been disrupted so far.
• The company bought Exact Sciences earlier this year, which means it inherited that firm's older technology and its risks.
• Investigators from outside cybersecurity firms and law enforcement are involved.

Abbott Laboratories has a bad week on its hands. The healthcare giant is looking into two separate cyber incidents at the same time, both connected to its Cancer Diagnostics business.

The first was first reported by BleepingComputer. Abbott confirms that unknown intruders got into older, internal computer systems that used to belong to Exact Sciences, the cancer-testing company Abbott acquired earlier this year. Those systems predate the acquisition, which is the polite corporate way of saying they were somebody else's problem before they became Abbott's.

The second incident is messier. A criminal group is publicly claiming it broke into LabCentral, a portal Abbott staff use to coordinate lab work, and stole company files. The group is now trying to extort Abbott, which usually means: pay up, or we leak the data.

Abbott says it does not yet have evidence that the two events are linked.

What was actually taken?

Abbott has not confirmed exactly what the attackers copied, and that is normal this early in an investigation. The company says its clinical systems, the ones that actually run diagnostic tests for patients, have not been affected. Everyday testing and reporting is still running.

That matters. When a hospital vendor gets hit, the first fear is that lab results start going missing or arriving late. So far, Abbott is saying that has not happened.

What is less clear is whether personal data about patients, doctors or research partners is in the stolen files. Exact Sciences runs Cologuard, the at-home colon-cancer screening kit that millions of Americans have used, so the pool of possibly affected people is large. Abbott has not said Cologuard customer data is involved. It has also not said it is not.

Should patients and customers be worried?

Not yet, but pay attention to your post. If your data was caught up in this, Abbott or Exact Sciences is legally required to write and tell you, usually within weeks of confirming it.

Until then, a few sensible habits help.

Be suspicious of any email or text that claims to come from Exact Sciences, Cologuard or Abbott and asks you to click a link, confirm details or pay something. Criminals who steal contact lists often follow up with phishing, which is when attackers send fake messages designed to trick you into handing over passwords or card numbers. If you want to check something, go to the company's website directly, not through a link in a message.

If you use online accounts with any Abbott-owned service, turn on two-factor authentication, the setting that asks for a code from your phone as well as your password.

The bigger pattern

Healthcare keeps getting hit because it is a rich target: lots of personal data, lots of old systems, lots of pressure to keep services running. Abbott's problem is a familiar one after any big acquisition. You buy the company, you buy the servers, and you buy every unpatched box in the basement.

Expect regulatory filings and a clearer picture of what was taken in the coming weeks. This is the noisy phase. The interesting phase is when the numbers land.