KBND reports:
About 145 patients who visited St Charles recently are getting letters in the mail saying that there was a privacy breach that could affect them. In late October, an employee laptop was stolen from their car parked outside their home. Lisa Goodman with St. Charles says the case is considered “low” risk for several reasons. “Number one the laptop was password protected and files were deleted. And at this time we don’t have any evidence that the info on the laptop has been accessed, a low risk breach.” St.Charles is offering those affected by the breach a fraud monitoring service for a year. And going forward they are moving to encrypt more patient files.
And that’s all they wrote. No statement on St. Charles’ site.
Update: OPB also covers the breach. Oddly, the spokesperson for the hospital reportedly said that
St. Charles does have a policy against leaving work laptops unattended and in plain view. But she says she doesn’t know where the computer was in the car when it was stolen
That suggests that it may be okay under hospital policy to leave a work laptop in a car overnight if it’s in the trunk? If that is really their policy, then it’s a bad policy.
Dec. 21: The laptop was recovered on December 16.