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Hospital Notifies Data Loss of 135,000 Records |
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Written by Bradley Siddell
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 Johns Hopkins
University has started to notify university employees and
hospital patients that tapes containing personal information have been missing
for seven weeks. Hopkins
officials said the tapes did not contain patient medical information, and they
believe the data has not been compromised. Eight of the tapes from university
computers held Social Security numbers, addresses, and direct-deposit bank
account information for 52,567 current and former employees, and were sent to a
contractor to make microfiche copies of the data for archives.
One
other tape from the hospital contained names, dates of birth, sex, race, and
medical record numbers for 83,000 hospital patients seen between July 4 and
Dec. 18, 2006. Hopkins
officials said an "intensive investigation" by both university staff
and the contractor led them to believe that the tapes were misplaced by a
courier, collected as trash, and incinerated. Two regulatory agencies
responsible for overseeing hospitals are discussing if an investigation into Hopkins' security
practices is necessary.
Source: ASIS: Baltimore
Sun P.
1A ; Bishop, Tricia; Richissin, Todd
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