Hospitals are a known battleground for attacks from viruses and infections, but a new threat ambushed two Chester County hospitals — and it may be contagious.

Just a week after news that hackers attacked Acme Markets, Community Health Systems Inc. announced that some patients at its Pottstown Memorial Medical Center and Phoenixville Hospital have become victims of a cyber theft that toted away names, addresses, birthdates, telephone numbers and Social Security numbers, according to coverage by The Phoenix Reporter & Item.

“Our organization believes the intruder was a foreign-based group out of China that was likely looking for intellectual property,” the company stated in the report.

Instead, it escaped with limited personal information on some 4.5 million people nationwide; the number in Chester County was not provided.

Read more about the cyberattack and the response to it in The Phoenix Reporter & Item here.