A Florida man admitted last week to using his position in a New Jersey doctor’s office to steal personal identifying information as part of his role in running a stolen identity refund fraud scheme, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Berness Swan, 44, of Spring Hill, Fla., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Renée Marie…
Category: Health Data
Oregon regulators fine Samaritan Health System over improper disposal of patient records
The eagle-eyed folks over at HealthITSecurity.com picked up on a follow-up to a Samaritan Health Services breach involving improper disposal of patient records, reported in July. According to a report on OregonLive.com, state regulators are fining the health system $1,000. Read more here.
OH: University Hospitals notifies 7,100 patients of stolen hard drive with personal medical information
Brie Zeitner of the Plain Dealer reports from Cleveland: More than 7,100 University Hospitals patients received notification by mail this week that their protected personal medical information was potentially exposed after a third-party contractor upgrading their computer system lost a hard drive containing physician office data. Someone stole the hard drive from the car of…
Hospital computer thefts put patients’ details at high risk
FOI is our friend. Greg Christison reports on data from 14 Scottish NHS boards: A Sunday Express investigation has found that around 80 items containing potentially sensitive data, including laptops, memory sticks, dictaphones and smartphones, have disappeared since January 2012. Read more on Sunday Express, but don’t expect to see numbers of unencrypted records with…
NetDiligence 2013 report: "Cyber Liability & Data Breach Insurance Claims"
NetDiligence has released its 2013 report on “Cyber Liability & Data Breach Insurance Claims” based on actual claims submitted: This report summarizes our findings for a sampling of 145 data breach insurance claims, 140 of which involved the exposure of sensitive data in a variety of sectors, including government, healthcare, hospitality, financial services, professional services, retail and…
Commentary: It's time for California and HHS to do a serious smackdown on "jokes" that invade privacy (update 1)
It seems like only last month that I reported on a lawsuit stemming from a practical joke played on a patient/co-worker by a surgeon and hospital staff. Oh wait, it was just last month, and it involved Torrance Memorial Medical Center. No wonder I had a deja vu experience reading this report today by Barbara…