A data breach that cost Beth Deaconess Medical Center in Boston over $500,000 in costs seems to have paid off when the hospital found itself with high-profile patients whose privacy needed protection: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and the Boston bombing victims. CIO John Halamka explains how Deloitte’s recommendations to them after a laptop theft and another data leak left…
Category: Health Data
Colorado medical marijuana patients protest privacy breaches
Kristen Wyatt of Associated Press reports: Medical marijuana patients asked Colorado health authorities on Wednesday to destroy and rebuild the state’s 107,000-person marijuana patient registry because of security breaches. The Board of Health unanimously rejected the emergency petition. But officials expressed alarm about a recent state audit showing the Colorado Department of Health and Environment…
Email attachment error breaches privacy of 3,700 Hope Community Resources of Alaska clients
Sean Doogan reports: Families and caregivers connected to Alaska’s disabled are speaking out after the inadvertent release of private, personal and sensitive identity and healthcare information was blasted out in an email chain on Monday night. Some are just angry that an attachment with personal information was accidentally added to a survey solicitation for Hope…
Student Claims Arrogant Doc Ruined Her
Jack Bouboushian reports: A physician ruined a college student’s career prospects by taking photos of her recovering from an alcohol binge in a hospital emergency room and posting them, with comments, on Facebook and Instagram, the student claims in court. Elena Chernyakova sued Dr. Vinaya Puppala, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and the Feinberg School of Medicine…
TX: Hard drive stolen by employee contained thousands of patients' information
Alex Belser of KTEN reports that a computer drive containing medical records of nearly 3,000 patients was stolen from the North Texas Comprehensive Spine and Pain Center in Sherman, Texas. The law firm representing the center says that there’s no indication of any misuse of the data, but the stolen external hard drive contained patients’ names, Social Security…
Denver counselor notifying patients after laptop with PHI stolen from office
Anica Padilla of 7News reports that Janna Benkelman, a licensed professional counselor who has offices in Denver and Parker, Colorado, sent a breach notification to 7News after a laptop with unencrypted patient information was stolen from her office. Ms Padilla didn’t report when the theft occurred, whether it affected patients at both offices or just the Denver…