Johns Hopkins investigates data breach

Last week, Johns Hopkins got back the stolen desktop computer which disappeared on July 15. Now, it's time to do the hard work of determining how much damage has been done.  An attorney returned the stolen computer on September 2, without citing who had given it to him. The same week, the hospital sent out letters to patients who might have been affected by the theft. This isn't the first time the hospital has grappled with such an issue this year; back in February, tapes with information on 135,000 patients, employees and retirees went missing.

Now that the PC has been returned, officials have hired an independent specialist to determine whether the data was siphoned off of the desktop and put to use. Officials say that the information on the computer, patient data from a tumor registry database, probably hasn't been compromised--they're contending that rather than a planned data theft, the computer was stolen for its equipment value.

To find out more about the investigation:
- read this Baltimore Business Journal article

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