Montefiore Medical Center: two computer thefts expose well over 23,000 private records
Two recent thefts of desktop computers belonging to the Montefiore Medical Center lead to the exposure of sestive information on patients and students stored by Montefiore’s Finance Department and School Health Program Administrative Offices.
The first incident happened in late May when two desktop computers were stolen from Montefiore’s Finance Department. The theft was discovered a couple of days later. Montefiore assessed the incident and concluded patient information had been stored on the computers, including patient names and medical record numbers. For some patients, the data stored also included social security numbers, dates of birth, hospital admission dates and/or insurer information.
The second incident was discovered on June 10, 2010. This time, three desktop computers had been stolen the day before the discovery from Montefiore’s School Health Program Administrative Offices. According to DatalossDB, 23,000 records including names, dates of birth, medical record numbers, parent or guardian contact numbers were exposed.
All stolen computers were password protected, but no other security measure has been mentioned by Montefiore. They are currently cooperating with the police investigations, but neither medical center representatives, nor the police believe the thieves were interested in the information stored on the computers. They might not be, but those buying the computers from them might!
Medicaid and Medicare patients, and parents, guardians or students can call Montefiore representatives at Identity Force, Toll free, at 800-295-0136, to find out if they are among the individuals whose information was stored on the stolen computers.
