Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia became the latest victim of laptop theft on June 14. The laptop contained personal information of approximately 21000 patients like their names, birth dates, insurance information and Social Security numbers. Those people who received inpatient care between March ’08 and November ’08 are covered under this theft.
The hospital has hired a risk consulting company to assess the amount of damage and has also started the process of notifying the people whose information has been compromised. An identity theft protection service has been offered to all such people.
“On behalf of everyone at Jefferson Hospitals, please accept our apologies and know that we are committed to providing assistance to the affected patients,” Jefferson Hospitals president and CEO Thomas Lewis said in a statement. “Jefferson Hospitals has extensive internal policies reflecting our commitment to the appropriate use of personal health information and employees receive training on these policies annually.”
A hospital employee violated policy by copying data from the hospital’s computer system to a laptop. The employee will be subject to an unspecified disciplinary action. Though the laptop was password protected but the data was not encrypted.
This incident is just the latest in a string of data breaches and device thefts that have plagued hospitals and health-care providers this year.
How to prevent data breach?
In cases of laptop theft, the insurance company may cover the hardware loss, but the data might be lost forever, or in worst cases might land in the wrong hands. Thus, data security software is required which will reduce the theft to merely that of hardware. That is certainly a small price to pay compared to what can happen if you lose confidential or sensitive data.
Alertsec Xpress offers a very good and easy-to-use laptop security service that includes more than the traditional software licensing model. Feel free to subscribe for your personal 30-day free trial.
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- This Week in Leaks (Aug. 6, 2010) (palisadesystems.com)
- Computer with patient data stolen from Jefferson (philly.com)
- Identity Theft in Laptops (socyberty.com)
