In June, this site covered a breach affecting approximately 18,000 patients of North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System. Unencrypted patient data, including SSN and clinical information, had been on five laptops stolen from Global Care Delivery, a Texas-based firm that contracted with North Shore-LIJ to process and collect payments owed by insurers to the hospital system. At the…
Category: Theft
MA: Theft of two registrar’s laptops put Brandeis University students’ data at risk (Updated)
Abby Patkin reports: Two Apple laptops containing academic and personal information for all students enrolled or taking a course at the University from the summer of 2012 to the present were stolen from the University Registrar, according to a Nov. 12 email sent by Marianne Cwalina, the senior vice president for finance and treasurer. The…
CT AG Jepsen, Hartford Hospital, Contractor Reach Agreement Resolving Investigation into Breach of Unencrypted Patient Information
There’s an update to a breach that I previously noted in 2012, and it reinforces the importance of your business associate contracts and the importance of monitoring them if you’re a HIPAA-covered entity: Hartford Hospital and the EMC Corporation will pay $90,000 and have agreed to institute additional training and control measures to resolve an…
UK: Police watchdog to probe claims 2002 theft of Special Branch personnel info at Castlereagh police station involved inside help
On March 17, 2002, there was a break-in and burglary at Castlereagh police station. The records that were stolen put lives at risk, as the stolen data included a list of officers in the Special Branch intelligence unit with contact details, and the code names of paramilitary agents and their handlers. Dozens of officers subsequently had to move…
UK: Crown Prosecution Service fined £200,000 for breach involving contractor
Back in September, I prefaced a breach post involving the U.K.’s Crown Prosecution Service with the comment, “This is one of those really terrible breaches that are the stuff of nightmares.” It appears the Information Commissioner’s Office concurred, as CPS has been fined £200,000 after laptops containing videos of police interviews were stolen from a private…
NY: Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center Data Breach Announced
HIPAA Journal reports: The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) has sent breach notification letters to 1,581 patients of its Brooklyn Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center, after a laptop computer was discovered to have been stolen. The laptop computer was password protected, but data stored on its hard drive had not been encrypted. As…