KDLT reports that Sioux Falls VA Health Care System is notifying veterans that their personal information may have been compromised in a potential breach of privacy: Sioux Falls VA Officials say on June 4, 2015 a list of patients was reproduced whose February 2015 prescription fill documents cannot be located. Officials say the fill documents…
Category: Health Data
Four Sentenced For Filing Over 1100 Fraudulent Tax Returns In South Georgia
Michael J. Moore, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia, announced that the three following defendants were sentenced on July 27, 2015 in United States District Court by the Honorable W. Louis Sands, Senior U.S. District Court Judge. Patrice Taylor, age 34, of Ashburn, Georgia, was sentenced to serve 84 months in prison…
Files of 1,100 veterans thrown in dumpster at Hot Springs VA
Human error strikes the VA system again. Seth Tupper reports that someone at the VA Black Hills Health Care System mistakenly dumped a box containing 1,100 veterans’ files into a dumpster on May 15. The error occurred during an office move (a problem we’ve seen before in other cases). Thankfully, the employee’s error was caught…
Siouxland Pain Clinic says patient information likely exposed by hacker
Mike Bell reports: Patient privacy likely was breached when Siouxland Pain Clinic‘s computer system was hacked, the clinic’s attorney said in a news release Friday afternoon. The release said it’s “highly likely” patients’ health and other personal information was exposed when a “foreign hacker” accessed the clinic’s server between March 26 and April 2. “At…
North East Medical Services notifies over 69,000 patients whose information was on stolen laptop
On the evening of July 11th, 69,246 patients of North East Medical Services (NEMS) in San Francisco had their protected health information stolen because an employee left their work laptop with unencrypted PHI in the trunk of their car. The theft was reported to the police and the employee reset the login and password remotely, but the theft…
Personal health information in the wrong hands can be painful
No wonder PHI is an attractive target for cyber criminals. It is relatively easy to get, and it gives them all the advantages of a stolen identity. And it is tough for defenders to protect data that is meant to be widely, and quickly, shared Read Taylor Armerding’s article on CSO as to why protected health…