Computers That Had Patient Info Stolen From UK Hospital Site

from the privacy,-huh? dept

Wed, Jan 17th 2007 4:28pm — Mike Masnick

We were just talking about questions concerning the privacy of electronic healthcare records, and here comes the news out of the UK, that 30 computers potentially containing patient information were stolen. It's unclear how big the risk actually is in this situation. The site where the machines were stolen was a disused hospital site, and the computers in question were supposed to have been "cleaned" of any personal data. However, they were scheduled to be checked this month to make sure the cleaning actually happened, but the thieves got there first. It's unlikely that this particular loss will lead to any problems, but it does highlight the risks involved in storing such private info and how physical security can often be as important as data security when you're dealing with protecting the privacy of information.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

8 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 17 Jan 2007 @ 5:09pm

Word.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Jan 2007 @ 5:14pm

..Word.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Jan 2007 @ 6:26pm

...Word.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Jan 2007 @ 6:27pm

....Word.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Jan 2007 @ 6:35pm

.....Word
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Jan 2007 @ 10:34pm

......Word.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Jan 2007 @ 10:50pm

I work for one of the many IT depts in the UK's Medical Service. It must be stressed that information on patients that is identifiable is NOT stored on the work stations. We have specialist applications that communicate with secure servers over secure networks and access the information that way. Any work done by secs is stored on my documents which is set up on a remote SAN. The above is ridiculous scaremongery. Wiping the machines is protocol. Potentially is such a vague word. The media blow too much out of its proportion. 'Potentially you may die tomorrow...' bah.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Louis, 18 Jan 2007 @ 2:27am

Disclaimer
They should add that to their privacy statement.

"Please note that we may potentially lose your data. Check your rectum."
[ link to this | view in thread ]