SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) _ Patient information was put at risk when Beacon Health System was the subject of a security breach that gave unauthorized individuals access to employee email, according to the South Bend company.

After discovering the breach on March 25, Beacon determined that some of the emails were accessed as early as November 2013 and contained information such as names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and driver’s license numbers. But the company didn’t find any evidence that sensitive information was viewed or removed from the emails and most of the emails only contained information regarding the patient’s name, their doctor’s name, internal patient number and patient status, it said in a news release last Friday.

Beacon will continue to notify those who were affected by the breach and offer them a free year of identity and credit monitoring and restoration services, The Elkhart Truth (http://bit.ly/1HIC4GF ) reported Monday. The company also will provide the affected patients will access to a confidential assistance line and an identity theft protection specialist, it said in the release.

Beacon is seeking help from the FBI throughout an ongoing investigation into the breach, and it already has notified the Department of Health and Human Service and various state regulators, according to the company.

Beacon plans to implement additional security measures to prevent another breach from happening, it said in the release.