While cyber threats and attacks, mounted remotely over the Internet, sustain to be a primary focus for healthcare data security, a newly revealed breach indicated that a normal and simple theft of an unencrypted laptop can still cause huge issues.
Premier Healthcare, a multi-specialty group practice in the Bloomington, Ind., on the day of January 4 founded that a laptop holding protected health data on approximately 206,000 persons had been stolen. The laptop was stolen from an administrative office that was secured by an alarm; while it was secured by a password, its data was not encrypted.
Compromised data involved names, addresses, dates of birth, medical record numbers, insurance data and few clinical information across screenshots, spreadsheets and PDF documents within the laptop, which was utilized to support billing functions. Social Security numbers or financial data for 1,769 people also were on the laptop.
In its intended announcement, Premier Healthcare did not demonstrate whether protective services are being provided to sufferers; the agency did not reacted to questions from <I>Health Data Management</I> on protection services, the degree to which any computers were encrypted, and other aspects of the violation.
Now, Premier Healthcare is encrypting entire computers and reviewing procedures and protocols to better stop theft in the future, a news release stated.
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