Hank Dudding reports: Federal and local authorities are investigating an identity-theft case that appears to have originated at Saint Francis Hospital and may involve hundreds of victims. U.S. postal inspector Katrina Chalmers confirmed Monday that the postal service is investigating the case, but she wouldn’t release any further details. […] Broadway was reluctant to discuss…
Category: Health Data
IL: Hospital worker accesses private records
Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn confirms it has fired an employee who improperly accessed private health records. The hospital has sent letters to 350 patients saying the unauthorized former worker looked at records that included addresses and social security numbers. The hospital says there’s no indication that any patient information was used but…
MA: Computer stolen from hospital has patients' info
Bruno Matarazzo Jr. reports: Police and security at Salem Hospital are investigating the theft of a laptop computer that contained personal and medical information on approximately 50 patients. A Hewlett-Packard laptop was stolen from the cardiology department between late November and last Thursday, when hospital nursing staff reported the theft to Salem police. In the…
Putting data breach genie back in bottle? Good luck
Over on FierceHealthIT, Anne Zieger writes: […] The problem is, nobody can put the data breach genie back in the bottle once it’s gotten out. Once data has been compromised, even a company with the billions in revenue enjoyed by TJX can make consumers feel completely insecure. And paying a huge settlement won’t do a…
DaVita burglary: patient info stolen
For what appears to be the second time this year, DVA Renal Healthcare (DaVita) has had to notify current or former patients that their data was stolen. In the most recent incident, a DaVita facility in Florida was burglarized and desktop computers were stolen. Although the computers were reportedly password-protected, there was no assertion that…
Patient breaches and P2P networks
Over on The Breach Blog, Evan Francen has written up some of the P2P breaches uncovered by Red Team Protection. It makes for fascinating reading, and a cautionary tale. If you have any patient or confidential information on your computer, installing or running file-sharing programs may result in you sharing much more than you intended…