DataBreaches.Net

Menu
  • About
  • Breach Notification Laws
  • Privacy Policy
  • Transparency Report
Menu

TX: Parkland employee fired after theft of thousands of patient records (updated)

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Dissent

Matt Peterson reports:

Authorities are investigating the theft of thousands of patient records at Parkland Memorial Hospital, allegedly by a former employee.

The theft, which came to light in September, led to the firing of the employee, who worked as a registrar in the hospital and had access to patient files for his job.

The employee, who is not being named, also owns a home health care agency and officials believe he used the information to contact patients as potential clients.

Further investigation by the Dallas County Hospital District police revealed that the employee had inappropriately accessed more than 2,000 patient records.

The personal information of 1,311 patients was contained in the stolen reports. This information includes patient name, age, gender, Medicare coverage, phone number and date of birth.

Of the 1,311 records that contained patient information, 232 of them also included the Social Security numbers of the patients.

Parkland officials have notified all impacted patients and are paying for them to enroll in a credit monitoring service for one year.

Source: Dallas Morning News.

This is the second blog entry this week relating to an insider data breach where the motivation was presumably trade secrets/competitive advantage.  The first case was Berkeley HeartLab, which appears to be an expensive breach in terms of litigation costs, settlement, compliance, and breach notification and mitigation services to affected patients. In this case, the motivation is not competitive as much as having/gaining leads to a potential client pool, I would imagine.

I note that there’s no mention of any arrest at this point.   Will this man be charged criminally under HIPAA or under Texas law, or both?  If the investigation bears out the details reported so far, I hope he is charged.

Updated December 9:  When this incident was reported to HHS, they indicated that 2,464 patients were affected.

Category: Health Data

Post navigation

← APEC committee alerted to possible data breach (updated)
Owner of tax preparation business pleads guilty to using stolen identity information for fraudulent tax refunds →

Now more than ever

"Stand with Ukraine:" above raised hands. The illustration is in blue and yellow, the colors of Ukraine's flag.

Search

Browse by Categories

Recent Posts

  • Central Maine Healthcare tackles suspected cybersecurity issue; hospitals remain open
  • Cartier Data Breach: Luxury Retailer Warns Customers that Personal Data Was Exposed
  • Beyond the Pond Phish: Unraveling Lazarus Group’s Evolving Tactics
  • Akira doesn’t keep its promises to victims — SuspectFile
  • Fraudsters, murderers, students: who the GRU assembled a team of hacker provocateurs from and why it failed
  • Order of Psychologists of Lombardy fined 30,000 € for inadequate data security protection and detection following ransomware attack
  • Lower Merion School District says a data breach was caused by a computer glitch (1)
  • After $1 Million Ransom Demand, Virgin Islands Lottery Restores Operations Without Paying Hackers
  • Junior Defence Contractor Arrested For Leaking Indian Naval Secrets To Suspected Pakistani Spies
  • Mysterious leaker GangExposed outs Conti kingpins in massive ransomware data dump

No, You Can’t Buy a Post or an Interview

This site does not accept sponsored posts or link-back arrangements. Inquiries about either are ignored.

And despite what some trolls may try to claim: DataBreaches has never accepted even one dime to interview or report on anyone. Nor will DataBreaches ever pay anyone for data or to interview them.

Want to Get Our RSS Feed?

Grab it here:

https://databreaches.net/feed/

RSS Recent Posts on PogoWasRight.org

  • Stewart Baker vs. Orin Kerr on “The Digital Fourth Amendment”
  • Fears Grow Over ICE’s Reach Into Schools
  • Resource: HoganLovells Asia-Pacific Data, Privacy and Cybersecurity Guide 2025
  • She Got an Abortion. So A Texas Cop Used 83,000 Cameras to Track Her Down.
  • Why AI May Be Listening In on Your Next Doctor’s Appointment
  • Watch out for activist judges trying to deprive us of our rights to safe reproductive healthcare
  • Nebraska Bans Minor Social Media Accounts Without Parental Consent

Have a News Tip?

Email: Tips[at]DataBreaches.net

Signal: +1 516-776-7756

Contact Me

Email: info[at]databreaches.net

Mastodon: Infosec.Exchange/@PogoWasRight

Signal: +1 516-776-7756

DMCA Concern: dmca[at]databreaches.net
© 2009 – 2025 DataBreaches.net and DataBreaches LLC. All rights reserved.