Identity theft is the nation’s fastest-growing crime, claiming almost ten million victims per year, according to FBI statistics. Medical identity theft is the latest threat to affect patients—especially senior citizens. To address this growing epidemic, the Federal Trade Commission will host the educational forum “Senior Identity Theft: A Problem in This Day and Age” to discuss the challenges facing victims of…
Category: Health Data
Where there's a breach, there's a lawsuit, Wednesday edition
A few weeks ago I noted that William Jennings Bryan Dorn VA Medical Center in South Carolina was notifying over 7,000 patients of a breach involving a stolen laptop. Now two of the veterans affected have filed a lawsuit over the breach. Additional details on the lawsuit, which was filed April 12, can be found here.
TN: Confidential patient records found in former Lakeshore building (updated)
John Henry reports: Lakeshore Mental Health Institute stopped admitting patients in 2012, but some of the clients’ records were still at the facility Tuesday. Former Lakeshore employee Hilda Lindeman was walking through Lakeshore Park when she noticed old patients records were on the floor of an abandoned, easily accessible hospital building named Waterside. She showed…
Hope Hospice notifies patients after email with PHI sent insecurely on two occasions
Hope Hospice officials say they recently discovered a possible information security breach after a routine check found that an employee had e-mailed a report of recent referral and admission activity to themselves through an unsecured channel. Information in the e-mail, which was sent in December and again in February, included names of over 800 Hope…
U.K. school in fresh security breach
Lucy Kenderdine reports: Police are probing a serious information breach at an Oldham school following the internet posting of confidential student details. More than 110 documents, including exclusion records, academic information and behaviour patterns at Hathershaw College from 2007 to 2009 were made available for anyone to download. Photos of pupils at the Bellfield Avenue…
Report: Utah’s health data breach cost a costly mistake
Kirsten Stewart reports: Utah’s 2012 health data breach — a security slip that exposed the personal information of three-quarters of a million residents to hackers — was a costly mistake. The state has spent about $9 million on security audits, upgrades and credit monitoring for victims — and that’s just the beginning. An estimated 122,000…