Barrie Barber reports:
Wright-Patterson Medical Center has alerted 3,800 people of a possible personal data security breach when a notebook containing their names and Social Security numbers was temporarily misplaced after a blood drive, according to a base spokesman.
The 88th Medical Group sent notification letters this month to the donors, said Wright-Patterson spokesman William Hancock.
Read more on Middletown Journal.
There will be those who think that there was likely very little risk in the breach and maybe notification wasn’t really needed. The Air Force explains:
… one day this month the notebook was left in a limited-use conference room late in the afternoon and recovered the next morning behind a chair, where it had apparently been dropped, according to base officials.
“While there is no evidence to suggest that personal data was accessed or misused, and the listing was only misplaced for a very short period of time, it is Air Force policy to inform individuals whose personal information could have been compromised,” the base statement said.
Air Force policy is more stringent than HITECH, apparently.
Wright-Patterson Medical Center is located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and is the third largest medical center in the Air Force.