WNEM reports that thousands of medical records were found abandoned in an unused office after the building was sold at auction. Shockingly, when the reporter contacted the state, they did not take steps to secure the information. The station reports: TV5’s Liz Gelardi called the state health department where a spokesperson explained a hospital or…
Ca: 1,500 patients' private info lost
Sandra Davis reports: A new policy regulating the storage of electronic personal health information will be in place within the next two weeks as a result of the disappearance of a USB memory stick last November at the Saint John Regional Hospital. The memory stick contained personal patient information, including Medicare numbers, of about 1,500…
MN: Fairview Health Services and North Memorial Hospital inform patients of breach due to Accretive Health's security #FAIL
Lorna Benson reports: Fairview and North Memorial Hospitals are notifying more than 16,000 patients that a laptop containing their personal and medical information was stolen. The laptop belonged to a healthcare services firm that coordinates services for Fairview. The theft occurred on July 25 in the parking lot of a Minneapolis restaurant. The computer contained…
UKChatterbox urges password change following hack attack
John Leyden reports: Popular IRC service UKChatterbox is advising users to change their passwords following a series of hacks which culminated in an attack that may have compromised user details. The password reset follows on from a succession of outages – previously attributed to maintenance upgrades – dating back to the start of the summer. In a notice to…
California SEIU Hospital Benefits Clerk Sentenced for $1M+ Identity Theft
This seems to be my day for updating older cases. Carl Horowitz provides an update to a breach that was first disclosed in February 2009 but actually occurred in July 2007: Mia Camille Garza describes herself as “somebody who has fallen off the path.” Her victims understandably aren’t as charitable. Last Thursday, September 22, Garza,…
Admitted Countrywide data thief gets 8 months in prison (updated)
In a breach case that was first revealed in August 2008, a former Countrywide employee has been sentenced: A former employee of mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. was sentenced Tuesday to eight months in prison and ordered to repay $1.2 million after pleading guilty to downloading millions of borrower files on thumb drives and selling…