WakeMed Emergency Department laptop goes missing
Technorati Tag: Security Breach
Date Reported:
1/28/08
Organization:
WakeMed Emergency Department
Contractor/Consultant/Branch:
None
Victims:
Ambulance patients
Number Affected:
As many as 850, revised 2/7/08 more than 1100 patients AND more than 3,400 EMS and firefighters from across the county (according to The News and Observer)
Types of Data:
Names, addresses, and Social Security numbers
Breach Description:
A laptop is missing and presumed stolen from the WakeMed Emergency Department that contains sensitive personal information belonging to roughly 850 people that received ambulatory care.
Reference URL:
WRAL.com news story
International Fire Fighting News story
Carolina Channel 14 News story
Report Credit:
WRAL.com
Response:
From the online sources cited above:
A Wake County Emergency Medical Services laptop computer with patient information disappeared from the WakeMed Emergency Department Thursday night, officials said Monday.
containing names, addresses and Social Security numbers of as many as 850 patients transported by county ambulances.
went missing from the WakeMed emergency department Jan. 17 and now is thought to have been stolen
The computer, which was being charged at the time of its disappearance, was not in use, and security measures make it unlikely that information would be accessed, according to a news release.
[Evan] The security measures being referred to are passwords, which is nothing more than a nuisance to anyone with minimal skill.
The patient information was not cloaked by encryption, said Jeff Hammerstein, Wake EMS district chief.
Administrators said the data was protected by several password, but computer specialists say that wasn't nearly enough.
"We have no reason to believe that the computer was stolen with any intention of accessing the medical records stored in it," Wake EMS Chief Skip Kirkwood said.
[Evan] Do you suppose that an identity thief would announce their intentions somehow? Identity theft grabs more headlines now than it ever did, and there are victims every day. What makes people think that the risk is minimal and there is "no reason to believe" that a thief may be interested in the information on the computer. Even if the thief isn't interested or skilled enough, do you think the person who buys the laptop from the thief might be?
"We regard this as a pretty serious thing," said Wake EMS Chief Skip Kirkwood. "It's far more annoying than I'd like the situation to be."
[Evan] Yes, pretty serious and annoying. Nice choice of words.
EMS officials, however, said they were notifying any patients whose medical information might be on the computer's hard drive about the matter.
For the last several years, Wake County paramedics have used laptops to quickly process patient information from the scene of a call or while en route to the hospital.
Once at the hospital, the laptops are connected to a docking station to download diagnostic information to a hospitalwide database. The laptop also connects to a separate database the county uses to store insurance and billing information. That's the information identity thieves covet.
[Evan] Do you suppose that the information is transferred to the database or stored in the database encrypted?
Wake County is now in the process of encrypting patient information on all of its nearly 60 laptop computers
[Evan] There you go. Now if you can get the paramedics to stop writing down passwords, we might be in business (I don't know if they do or not).
The Panasonic Toughbook laptop computer, model CF29, has silver and black casing and a handle and has a Wake County property label with the identification number DP 16096.
Anyone with information about the computer's whereabouts is asked to contact EMS's district chief, Jeffrey Hammerstein, at .
Commentary:
I am surprised that we don't hear of more stolen/lost laptops from paramedics and ambulances. There was Carrabus County (NC) laptop left on an ambulance bumper last November, but I don't recall any others. I would think that the fact these laptops are used in high-stress, fast-paced environments would add to the risk of loss.
I'm glad to hear that Wake County will be encrypting these laptops now. It's too bad it took a loss before they got the hint.
Past Breaches:
Unknown
Date Reported:1/28/08
Organization:
WakeMed Emergency Department
Contractor/Consultant/Branch:
None
Victims:
Ambulance patients
Number Affected:
As many as 850, revised 2/7/08 more than 1100 patients AND more than 3,400 EMS and firefighters from across the county (according to The News and Observer)
Types of Data:
Names, addresses, and Social Security numbers
Breach Description:
A laptop is missing and presumed stolen from the WakeMed Emergency Department that contains sensitive personal information belonging to roughly 850 people that received ambulatory care.
Reference URL:
WRAL.com news story
International Fire Fighting News story
Carolina Channel 14 News story
Report Credit:
WRAL.com
Response:
From the online sources cited above:
A Wake County Emergency Medical Services laptop computer with patient information disappeared from the WakeMed Emergency Department Thursday night, officials said Monday.
containing names, addresses and Social Security numbers of as many as 850 patients transported by county ambulances.
went missing from the WakeMed emergency department Jan. 17 and now is thought to have been stolen
The computer, which was being charged at the time of its disappearance, was not in use, and security measures make it unlikely that information would be accessed, according to a news release.
[Evan] The security measures being referred to are passwords, which is nothing more than a nuisance to anyone with minimal skill.
The patient information was not cloaked by encryption, said Jeff Hammerstein, Wake EMS district chief.
Administrators said the data was protected by several password, but computer specialists say that wasn't nearly enough.
"We have no reason to believe that the computer was stolen with any intention of accessing the medical records stored in it," Wake EMS Chief Skip Kirkwood said.
[Evan] Do you suppose that an identity thief would announce their intentions somehow? Identity theft grabs more headlines now than it ever did, and there are victims every day. What makes people think that the risk is minimal and there is "no reason to believe" that a thief may be interested in the information on the computer. Even if the thief isn't interested or skilled enough, do you think the person who buys the laptop from the thief might be?
"We regard this as a pretty serious thing," said Wake EMS Chief Skip Kirkwood. "It's far more annoying than I'd like the situation to be."
[Evan] Yes, pretty serious and annoying. Nice choice of words.
EMS officials, however, said they were notifying any patients whose medical information might be on the computer's hard drive about the matter.
For the last several years, Wake County paramedics have used laptops to quickly process patient information from the scene of a call or while en route to the hospital.
Once at the hospital, the laptops are connected to a docking station to download diagnostic information to a hospitalwide database. The laptop also connects to a separate database the county uses to store insurance and billing information. That's the information identity thieves covet.
[Evan] Do you suppose that the information is transferred to the database or stored in the database encrypted?
Wake County is now in the process of encrypting patient information on all of its nearly 60 laptop computers
[Evan] There you go. Now if you can get the paramedics to stop writing down passwords, we might be in business (I don't know if they do or not).
The Panasonic Toughbook laptop computer, model CF29, has silver and black casing and a handle and has a Wake County property label with the identification number DP 16096.
Anyone with information about the computer's whereabouts is asked to contact EMS's district chief, Jeffrey Hammerstein, at .
Commentary:
I am surprised that we don't hear of more stolen/lost laptops from paramedics and ambulances. There was Carrabus County (NC) laptop left on an ambulance bumper last November, but I don't recall any others. I would think that the fact these laptops are used in high-stress, fast-paced environments would add to the risk of loss.
I'm glad to hear that Wake County will be encrypting these laptops now. It's too bad it took a loss before they got the hint.
Past Breaches:
Unknown
Posts Atom 1.0
so i was one of the lucky ones who received that letter in the mail today from wakemed expressing their 'deep regret'
GREAT.
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a good read !
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