Another update on a breach previously mentioned on this blog. From a July 24 press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland: U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake sentenced Derrick Elrod, age 35, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to three years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for bank fraud…
Category: Health Data
Paper records account for most Veterans Affairs data breaches
Frank Konkel reports: The leading cause of data breaches at the Department of Veterans Affairs continues to be paper-based records, according to VA Acting Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology Stephen Warren. Warren briefed reporters Aug. 8 on the data breach reports his agency submitted to Congress for April, May and June, and stated that…
Two former Sentara workers charged with identity theft
Scott Daugherty reports that two former Sentara Healthcare nurse’s aides have been indicted on charges of stealing the identities of at least a dozen patients as part of a tax refund fraud scheme. Several of the victims were patients at Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital and all were reportedly patients of Sentara medical facilities in…
Firewall error by M2ComSys exposed 32,000 patients' information (Update 1)
A vendor’s firewall error has resulted in approximately 32,000 patients in 48 states being notified that some of their protected health information was exposed on the Internet. The vendor was medical transcription service M2ComSys, contracted by Cogent Healthcare. The latter provides physicians called hospitalists to hospitals operated by Genesis Health Systems. Neither Genesis Health Systems…
Indiana: No data breach after stolen laptop traced to Indy home
Stephen Dean reports: State officials said no data was breached after a state worker’s stolen laptop was tracked down to a home on the east side of Indianapolis. A longtime employee with the Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) told police her state-issued laptop was stolen from the back seat of her car at a…
Privacy breach prompts retraction of three papers from the trauma literature
A group of international psychology researchers is retracting three papers in the wake of revelations that they failed to adequately safeguard the identities of the patients who participated in the studies. So far, only one article has been formally retracted. That article, “Combining biofeedback and Narrative Exposure Therapy for persistent pain and PTSD in refugees:…