Jennifer Scott reports: The deputy commissioner of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has named and shamed the NHS as the worst offender when it comes to data breaches. During the opening keynote at InfoSecurity Europe 2010, David Smith highlighted the health service’s blunders over the past two years where it accounted for almost a third…
Category: Health Data
NY: Patient files found dumped in Monticello
Leonard Sparks reports: Officials have seized hundreds, perhaps thousands, of files containing Social Security numbers and other private patient information found dumped outside the shuttered office of DRC Physical Therapy Plus. The manila folders, dating back to at least 1998, include information sheets showing the names, addresses and birth dates of patients and, in some…
Survey: Delayed Compliance with New Regulations Has Increased Data Breaches and Medical Identity Theft in U.S. Hospitals
Although some will tend to minimize survey results when the surveyor has a self-serving interest, the results of the recent Identity Force survey of over 200 hospital administrators provides unsurprising, yet troubling, data. From their press release about the survey: PROBLEMS ARE WORSENING DESPITE MAJOR REGULATORY EFFORTS 41.5% of hospitals have TEN OR MORE data…
SC: DHEC notifying clients of personal information breach
Previous coverage on this breach can be found here and here. The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control continues to notify clients whose personal information was included on improperly discarded DHEC documents, the agency reported today. “We’ve already mailed letters to individuals, but we don’t have complete mailing addresses for a small number of…
Lawsuits over Arizona tribe blood samples settled
At last, a follow-up on a lawsuit that I initially covered on this blog in November 2008 involving a case that actually started in the 1990s. Amanda Lee Myers of the Associated Press reports that the Havasupai tribe in Arizona has settled its lawsuits against Arizona State University for allegedly misusing blood samples. The tribal…
WI: Hospital reports breach of patient information
Tomah Memorial Hospital has notified 600 patients of a breach of protected health information following the arrest of an emergency room nurse who is charged with fraudulently obtaining controlled substances between April 2008 and March 2010. Dianna L. Peth, 54, of Tomah, was arrested and charged with diversion of narcotics March 29. Peth, who worked…