Patients' Data on Stolen Laptop

[tpsbmam]

Source: Washington Post

A government laptop computer containing sensitive medical information on 2,500 patients enrolled in a National Institutes of Health study was stolen in February, potentially exposing seven years' worth of clinical trial data, including names, medical diagnoses and details of the patients' heart scans. The information was not encrypted, in violation of the government's data-security policy.

NIH officials made no public comment about the theft and did not send letters notifying the affected patients of the breach until last Thursday -- almost a month later. They said they hesitated because of concerns that they would provoke undue alarm.

The handling of the incident is reminiscent of a 2006 theft from the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs employee of a laptop with personal information about veterans and active-duty service members. In that case, VA officials waited 19 days before announcing the theft.

"The shocking part here is we now have personally identifiable information -- name and age -- linked to clinical data," said Leslie Harris, executive director of the Center for Democracy & Technology. "If somebody does not want to share the fact that they're in a clinical trial or the fact they've got a heart disease, this is very, very serious. The risk of identity theft and of revealing highly personal information about your health are closely linked here."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/23/AR2008032301753_pf.html

[peacetalksforall]

1. Stolen for reward - data for populating the database on those who paid

for the database through their taxes. We pay to be spied on. Hollywood scriptsand paperback novels don't get as good as Republican (and Democrat) spying. Schumer, Feinstein, Landrieau, and many, may others - all those who voted for the Patriot Act.

Or... it's sitting in a pawn shop with $1000.00 worth of software on it to make graphs, etc., but no encryption.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Was this laptop left sitting on a table at a Starbuck's while its user was in the toilet???

Why are people allowed to have this kind of info on a laptop....?????
IDIOTS IDIOTS IDIOTS

[BattyDem]

3. Why is this kind of information always on laptops?

And why are those laptops always carried by idiots who leave them in public places? :grr:

I can understand an employee needing to take a few files home to work on them after hours - many people do that sort of thing on company laptops - but why does the whole freakin' database need to be on a laptop? The fact is ... IT DOESN'T!

This shit happens far too many times for it to be innocent. These companies must be making some high-priced, back-room deals to sell that information ... but they can't legally sell it, so they just tell the buyer where and when an employee will lose a laptop. :eyes: