The Mail Online is reporting: Police are investigating the theft of laptop computers containing personal information on several thousand patients from a London hospital. Thieves broke into locked cabinets in secure offices at St George’s Hospital in London, which were accessible only by a swipe card and key-locked door. Six computers were taken –…
Finjan Discovers more than 500 Mb of Stolen Medical, Business and Airline Data on Crimeware Servers in Argentina and Malaysia
Finjan Inc. has issued a press release and report [pdf, free subscription required]. While coming as no surprise, their findings should alarm us all. From the press release: Finjan Inc., a leader in secure web gateway products, today announced its discovery of a server controlled by hackers (Crimeserver) containing more than 500Mb of premium…
Personal Documents Found in Trash Bin
Courtney Collins of KARK 4 News reports: How would you feel if your bank account information, social security number and address were available to anyone? For a period of time today, that was a reality for hundreds of central Arkansas dental patients. KARK got a call this afternoon from a concerned worker at a Little…
UK: Fears as GP’s laptop stolen
A laptop containing confidential medical records of all 11,000 Wolverhampton patients at a city surgery has been stolen from a GP’s house, police revealed today. Names, dates of birth, addresses and contact details were all stored and unencrypted on the PC belonging to a doctor from Castlecroft Medical Practice. Full story at Express & Star
Bill Allowing Medical Privacy Intrusion Fails in Sacramento
A bill allowing marketers hired by drug companies to secretly access patient prescription drug records failed to get a single “yes” in a key vote Tuesday in the Assembly Health Committee. Though some members who did not vote could technically cast votes before the end of the day, the failure of the measure (SB1096 by…
HIPAA Creating Barriers to Research and Discovery
The Association of Academic Health Centers has released a paper that concludes that HIPAA is a significant obstacle to biomedical research. From their paper [pdf]: Recommendations In order to ensure that American science can flourish, there is a need to address HIPAA-related barriers that are impeding research. The AAHC recommends the following: The Department of…