TX healthcare system loses data

Another week, another health system data loss. This week the prize goes to Austin's Seton Healthcare Network, which lost personal information on 7,800 patients last week when a thief stole a laptop from a secured building. The data pertains to patients who visited a Seton ER or clinic since July 2005. The laptop's hard drive doesn't contain any clinical information, but a Seton spokesperson admitted that there could be Social Security numbers or Medicaid numbers on the drive. The thief had unfortunate timing: Seton is in the process of encrypting data stored on its laptops, but hadn't installed the encryption software on this particular laptop yet. (The laptop is password-protected, but FierceHealthIT readers know how little that would mean to a determined black-hat hacker.) Seton began sending out letters to affected patients last week.

To learn more about the laptop theft:
- read this article from KVUE.com

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