Cindy Scharr reports: A Chester County couple has been charged in a $257,710 tax fraud scam that involved the stolen identities of patients at Crozer-Chester Medical Center and Chester Community Hospital. Rafael Henriquez Polanco, 30, and his wife, Yanira Lopez, 27, residents of Chester Springs, allegedly filed fraudulent tax returns seeking more than $1.7 million…
UK: Medical receptionist prosecuted after unlawfully accessing patient’s details
A former receptionist at a GP surgery in Southampton has been prosecuted by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for unlawfully obtaining sensitive medical information relating to her ex-husband’s new wife. Appearing at West Hampshire Magistrates today, Marcia Phillips was prosecuted under section 55 of the Data Protection Act and fined £750 and ordered to pay…
Some days I’m glad I’m not on the A-list
By now, everyone’s probably heard that a lot of famous people had their details exposed on the Exposed.su web site. By the time the site was taken offline, over 234,000 visitors had viewed personal information on Michelle Obama, Kim Kardashian, Vice-President Joe Biden, FBI Director Robert Mueller, Former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,…
DNA hack could make medical privacy impossible
Kevin Fogarty reports: It may now be possible for anyone, even if they follow rigorous privacy and anonymity practices, to be identified by DNA data from people they do not even know. A paper published in January in the journal Science describes a process by which it’s possible to identify by name the donors of…
Tulsa Medical Records Turn Up On Ponca City Newspaper Loading Dock
I missed this report when it first appeared on March 4. Emory Bryan reports: Imagine finding a stack of someone’s medical records, with all their personal and private information. That’s what happened to a stack of records from Tulsa’s Saint Francis Hospital. The records showed up in Ponca City, and it might have gone unnoticed,…
Officials deny hospital source of media ‘leak’
It started with this report that recording artist Joel Mendoza was planning on suing Victor R. Potenciano Medical Center for releasing his personal information, including his address, to the media. Mendoza had reportedly been the victim of a violent robbery attack. Although police had identified two suspects in the attack, they had not been arrested…