Back on October 29 and over on DataBreaches.net, I reported: Genesis Rehabilitation Services in Pennsylvania reports that an employee lost a thumb drive with the unencrypted personal information of 33 employees, agency employees, or applicants to GRS. The information on the drive included individuals’ names, postal or email addresses, and Social Security numbers. The drive had reportedly…
Category: Health Data
UK: GP surgery manager prosecuted for illegally accessing patients’ medical records
From the Information Commissioner’s Office: A former manager who oversaw the finances of a GP’s practice in Maidstone has been prosecuted by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) after unlawfully accessing the medical records of approximately 1,940 patients registered with the surgery. Appearing at Maidstone Magistrates Court today, 37-year-old Steven Tennison pleaded guilty to charges of…
Social media and patient privacy – a nurse leader's investigation
Nursing Careers Allied Health has an article on patient privacy breaches when health care professionals use social media. Perhaps the most concerning finding of the study they discuss is that most nurses did not even think that what they were doing was a breach of privacy. From the article: In the Nursing Times study, 27 per…
Chicago Public Schools’ students’ health data accidentally posted online
Backy Schlikerman reports: A small amount of Chicago Public Schools’ students’ health data was accidentally posted online, but the issue is fixed, the city of Chicago announced Friday. Data collected about some 2,000 student who participate in a free vision examination program provided by the city was “incorrectly configured” and was available on the Internet,…
Disabled woman denied entry to U.S. after agent cites supposedly private medical details
Valerie Hauch reports: Ellen Richardson went to Pearson airport on Monday full of joy about flying to New York City and from there going on a 10-day Caribbean cruise for which she’d paid about $6,000. But a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent with the Department of Homeland Security killed that dream when he denied her entry. “I…
WA: 90,000 patients of notified of breach after employee opened an email attachment with malware
You can warn and warn employees about not opening email attachments, but despite your best efforts, they do. And to make matters worse, you were storing Social Security numbers and they weren’t encrypted? The University of Washington Medicine posted this announcement on their site yesterday: November 27, 2013 Seattle — In early October 2013, a…