Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Missing Baylor Laptop Exposes Patients to Identity Theft

In Texas, a recently reported laptop theft has resulted in the issuance
of a consumer warning notifying an additional 100,000 patients who
had limited information stored on the computer.


According to the Dallas Business Journal article:

"A laptop stolen from an employee's car in Royse City
has prompted Health Texas Provider Network, a subsidiary
of Baylor Health Care System, to notify 7,400 patients that
their personal information may be at risk. Social security
numbers and a limited amount of patient information was
stored on the laptop."

As an added preventative step, the decision was made
to also notify other patients with less sensitive personal
information stored on the same computer:

"Although law does not require it to do so, the network
said it is taking extra measures to notify an additional
100,000 patients who had limited information stored
on the computer, but not their social security numbers."

So, our tip for today is to let anyone you know of associated
with Baylor Health Care System to contact them immediately
for more more information on the offer of free credit monitoring
services.

A toll free number & special website have been setup to support
information seekers:

800.554.5281

Baylor Healthcare System


PS: Be a good friend, family member or co-worker. Help others to
be on guard against identity theft credit fraud by sharing these free,
safe tips to aid in the prevention of identity theft.



4 Comments:

At 7:31 AM, Blogger agent99 said...

One would think that from a country which could send a man to the moon surely can also mandate encryption for any social security numbers stored on laptops?!!!

 
At 7:41 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you, Agent 99 for this important notice.

My aunt gets tons of postal mail and as a result doesn't look at it for weeks - if not a couple of months after delivery - especially if it just looks like junk mail.

I will call her today to warn her of this security breach.

Thanks, again.

 
At 7:49 AM, Blogger agent99 said...

You are very welcome.

 
At 9:45 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I actually just blogged on this exact topic. Check it out here: http://blog.mylaptopgps.com/2008/11/16/baylor-health-laptop-theft/

I'm shocked at the amount of health-care-center related data being stolen these days.

 

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