Rip of the Week: OHSU Says Laptop Theft “Probably” Won’t Cause ID Theft
In another standard incident, Oregon Health and Science University reveals that one of its doctors had a laptop stolen from her car parked in front of her house. OHSU says that the information on the laptop was “password protected” and was limited.
“The information included patient names, treatment dates, short medical treatment summaries and medical record numbers. No home addresses, billing information and Social Security numbers were stored on the laptop.” Or, so says the report.
Here are our standard elements:
- The laptop was stolen from a parked car.
- The breaching organization says that the information was “password protected,” insinuating that that constitutes some bona fide protection.
- The breaching organization claims ID theft is unlikely.
All of these are standard boilerplate for such a breach, but there’s no mention of trackability, remote data deletion, or encryption.
For those affected, OHSU says you’re not at much risk. Hopefully that’s a comfort to you. Hopefully.
identity theft, laptop theft, medical ID theft, OHSU, Oregon Health and Science University
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What a synical, uninformed, & off the handle write up. It’s apparent you don’t know any real specifics and most of all you just want to sell your product at the expense of other organizations. Pathetic!!
Folks are entitled to their opinions, and I appreciate yours. What do you other readers think? Do you suppose I’m merely in the business of touting technology that, it turns out, solves the very problem that breach, after breach, after breach, after breach stems from? Readers are invited to read the independent news coverage (usually linked right in the blog post) and decide for yourself whether organizations are taking responsible proactive protection measures or not (regardless of whether said protection includes a solution we offer). More comments welcome!