[Dataloss] [update] St. Mary's Hospital

[Dissent]

Updates the number of individuals affected and type of info compromised....

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.identity13feb13,0,5907611.story?coll=bal-local-headlines

A second Maryland hospital has reported losing sensitive computerized 
data on tens of thousands of patients, raising another alarm about 
how consumer information is protected.

Up to 130,000 former and current patients at St. Mary's Hospital in 
Leonardtown have recently been notified that a laptop with personal 
information was stolen from the hospital in December. Just last week, 
Johns Hopkins officials reported the loss of thousands of employee 
and patient records.

Last seen Dec. 5 in St. Mary's emergency care center, the computer 
included the names, Social Security numbers and birth dates of 
patients who had been treated as long ago as 1989, said Christine 
Wray, the hospital's president and chief executive officer. The data 
did not include anyone's medical or financial information, but it 
also was not encrypted, so anyone can read it, she said.

The laptop, used to register patients as they came in for treatment, 
was taken from a treatment area that the public could generally 
access without a security check.

The hospital has contracted with National ID Recovery of Norcoss, 
Ga., a firm that specializes in identity theft cases, to help 
patients keep track of their personal information such as credit card 
usage patterns, she said. The service will be free to patients, and 
the hospital is paying the firm up to $425,000, she said.

[...]

St. Mary's Hospital was under no legal obligation to disclose the 
laptop theft, because no medical records were stolen, Wray said. But 
she and others on the hospital's staff felt it was necessary to give 
those potentially affected the chance to begin tracking their credit 
records and other personal information.

[...]

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