[Dataloss] 88,000 patients at risk after computer theft

[rchick]

Thursday, May 01, 2008
http://www.silive.com/news/advance/index.ssf?/base/news/1209644107324690.xml&coll=1

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Computer equipment stolen from an
administrative office in Rosebank in December contained personal
information about 88,000 patients who have been treated at Staten
Island University Hospital.

After four months with no arrests, hospital administrators are just
now beginning the process of sending letters to patients whose names,
Social Security and health insurance numbers were contained in
computer files on a desktop computer and a backup hard drive stolen
Dec. 29 from one of the hospital's finance offices at 1 Edgewater
Plaza.

"The hospital is in the process of issuing a letter of information to
each patient involved in which one year of free credit monitoring is
being offered," said a hospital statement released yesterday afternoon
by spokeswoman Arleen Ryback. The time frame for when patients whose
information was included in the data were treated was not immediately
known.

[...]