Boston Medical Center HealthNet and Boston Medical Center Corporation have agreed to pay the state $562,000 to settle charges that BMC gave private patient information to its HealthNet insurance plan for marketing purposes that the state described as deceptive. According to WBUR, BMC sent a letter to 2,600 patients who were insured by competing plans. …
Category: Health Data
Patients’ attitudes to the summary care record: Security concerns must be put in context
From the British Medical Journal: Patients’ attitudes to the summary care record: Security concerns must be put in context J.E.F. Fitzgerald, A. Nikkar-Esfahani, A.A.B. Jamjoom, K.K. Shah, A.G. Acheson (16 June 2008) […] Human links in the patient record chain are far more vulnerable to error, and we have been alarmed at the ease…
More on the Finjan study
Earlier today, I posted a link to a troubling Finjan study that found that crimeware was hitting major health-related organizations.  In his news report on the study, Jaikumar Vijayan of Computerworld writes, in part: One trend Finjan has noted is an increased focus on trying to steal login credentials for Citrix applications. Technologies from Citirx…
UK: Latest security blunder sees patients personal information stolen from a hospital (update1)
The Mail Online is reporting: Police are investigating the theft of laptop computers containing personal information on several thousand patients from a London hospital. Thieves broke into locked cabinets in secure offices at St George’s Hospital in London, which were accessible only by a swipe card and key-locked door. Six computers were taken –…
Finjan Discovers more than 500 Mb of Stolen Medical, Business and Airline Data on Crimeware Servers in Argentina and Malaysia
Finjan Inc. has issued a press release and report [pdf, free subscription required]. While coming as no surprise, their findings should alarm us all. From the press release: Finjan Inc., a leader in secure web gateway products, today announced its discovery of a server controlled by hackers (Crimeserver) containing more than 500Mb of premium…
Personal Documents Found in Trash Bin
Courtney Collins of KARK 4 News reports: How would you feel if your bank account information, social security number and address were available to anyone? For a period of time today, that was a reality for hundreds of central Arkansas dental patients. KARK got a call this afternoon from a concerned worker at a Little…