HHS recently updated its breach notification tool and added seven incidents that have not been previously reported on this blog. In the first incident, Robert S. Smith, M.D., Inc. of Georgia notified HHS that a laptop theft on October 17, 2011 affected 17,000 patients. In researching this incident, I found a breach notification: HIPAA Breach…
Category: Health Data
UK: Cumbrian Hospitals Trust opens investigation after patients' details 'left on train'
Pamela McGowan reports: A probe has been launched after patients at north Cumbria’s hospitals were told some of their information had been lost on a train. A number of patients this week received letters informing them that personal details have gone missing. It is not known how many people are affected or the exact nature…
NC: Laptop of health care provider stolen
Richard Craver reports that an office burglary snagged a laptop with unencrypted patient data: A laptop computer stolen from a local behavioral-health provider on Dec. 13 contained medical data for 2,070 individuals in Davie, Forsyth and Stokes counties, the provider said Friday. Triumph LLC, which is based in Raleigh, notified clients and family members of…
CO: Hackers tap into medical group's records after employees fall for phishing attempt
Mark Meredith reports: A Denver area non-profit medical group is asking customers to beware of hackers after the group discovered patient data had been compromised. “On Monday, December 5th, 2011, Metro Community Provider Network became aware that a hacker potentially accessed the personal health information of some of our patients’ personal health information,” said the…
UK: Gosport podiatrist's confidential records laptop stolen
BBC reports: A laptop containing personal and medical information of up to 1,500 people has been stolen from a podiatry clinic in Hampshire. The Zoostorm laptop, containing unencrypted data, was taken from the Walking On Air clinic in Gosport on Tuesday. Podiatrist Natasha Townsend said the laptop did have a password. The Information Commissioner’s Office…
Report: Data breaches from unencrypted devices up 525% in 2011
Dan Bowman reports on a new report by Redspin that analyzed breaches reported to HHS: According to the report, nearly 40 percent of all major PHI breaches occurred on a laptop or other portable media device, a problem the authors say isn’t likely to go away anytime soon. […] In the last year alone, data…