Howard Altman reports:
The Department of Veteran Affairs is investigating the “inappropriate removal” from the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital of records that contain personal information on hundreds of veterans who had received treatment there.
[…]
The Haley security breach was discovered in May by an off-duty Tampa police officer working a detail at the Motel 6 on Fowler Avenue.
[…]
Last week, Haley director Kathleen R. Fogarty began sending out letters to those veterans whose records were compromised.
In the letter sent to Toborg, Fogarty informs him that “I was recently notified by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) that your personal information has been compromised. A consultation form containing your name, full social security and date of birth was reported to have been inappropriately removed” from the hospital.
Read more on Tampa Bay Tribune.
If this breach was uncovered in May and data were misused in at least a few cases, notifications first being sent out last week seems unacceptably long. I’d like to see a chronology involving the exact time frame of notification to Haley.