One Million Data Breaches in One Month

A recent article reported that in the past month there have been nine major healthcare data breachs resulting in the exposure of personal information on more than 1,000,000 patients. This reinforces the need for healthcare to implement improved privacy and security measures to enable proper protection of healthcare information.

Recent Data Breaches 12/27/13

9 Recent Healthcare Data Breaches

Written by Helen Gregg (Twitter | Google+) | December 19, 2013

Here are nine data breaches that occurred within the past month, starting with the most recent.

1. A third-party vendor removed electronic security safeguards from a Santa Barbara, Calif.- based Cottage Health System server without informing hospital officials, exposing the information of 32,500 patients.

2. A laptop containing 1,900 Southern Illinois University HealthCare patients' data was stolen from a physician's office.

3. Approximately 49,000 patients were notified of a data breach at Kaiser Permanente's Anaheim (Calif.) Medical Center.

4. Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey notified approximately 839,711 members that two unencrypted laptops containing members' personal and health information were stolen from the insurer's Newark, N.J., headquarters.

5. A laptop and paper files were stolen from Houston Methodist Hospital, compromising the personal and health information of 1,300 patients.

6. Pittsburgh-based UPMC notified 1,300 patients treated at various UPMC locations their records were inappropriately viewed by a UPMC McKeesport employee.

7. A data breach at the University of Washington Medicine in Seattle compromised the personal and health information of 90,000 patients.

8. The theft of a laptop from a University of California San Francisco physician compromised the health information of 8,294 people.

9. In Fortuna, Calif., Redwood Memorial Hospital announced the loss of a thumb drive containing personal and medical information of 1,039 patients