Ed Beeson reports: Nearly 840,000 members of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield are being notified that their personal information may have been contained on a pair of laptops that were stolen from the insurer’s Newark headquarters last month. The stolen laptops were password-protected, but had unencrypted data, Horizon said in a statement today. A subsequent…
Category: Health Data
FTC vs. LabMD update
Two more court filings in FTC vs. LabMD are now available online: the FTC’s Opposition to LabMD’s Motion to Stay Proceedings and LabMD’s reply to FTC’s response opposing LabMD’s motion to dismiss the complaint with prejudice and to stay the proceedings. The latter is of more interest to me right now, but I am putting off a…
Genesis Rehabilitation Services breach also affected patients
Back on October 29 and over on DataBreaches.net, I reported: Genesis Rehabilitation Services in Pennsylvania reports that an employee lost a thumb drive with the unencrypted personal information of 33 employees, agency employees, or applicants to GRS. The information on the drive included individuals’ names, postal or email addresses, and Social Security numbers. The drive had reportedly…
UK: GP surgery manager prosecuted for illegally accessing patients’ medical records
From the Information Commissioner’s Office: A former manager who oversaw the finances of a GP’s practice in Maidstone has been prosecuted by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) after unlawfully accessing the medical records of approximately 1,940 patients registered with the surgery. Appearing at Maidstone Magistrates Court today, 37-year-old Steven Tennison pleaded guilty to charges of…
Social media and patient privacy – a nurse leader's investigation
Nursing Careers Allied Health has an article on patient privacy breaches when health care professionals use social media. Perhaps the most concerning finding of the study they discuss is that most nurses did not even think that what they were doing was a breach of privacy. From the article: In the Nursing Times study, 27 per…
Chicago Public Schools’ students’ health data accidentally posted online
Backy Schlikerman reports: A small amount of Chicago Public Schools’ students’ health data was accidentally posted online, but the issue is fixed, the city of Chicago announced Friday. Data collected about some 2,000 student who participate in a free vision examination program provided by the city was “incorrectly configured” and was available on the Internet,…