St. Elizabeth's Medical Center data breach under investigation @McAfeeConsumer

12 Feb 2012 · 2 min

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The news segment reports that confidential patient records from St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston were discovered on a public street in Charlestown, near the Shafter Building. A Roadrunner Moving and Storage employee found bundles of paperwork containing sensitive medical information and alerted the hospital, which sent staff to retrieve the documents. The incident has triggered an investigation by the hospital’s administrators, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, and the owning company, Steward Health Care, which suggests a vendor may have mishandled the records. Identity‑theft expert Robert Siciliano (McAfee) explains that such breaches can lead to bank, credit‑card, and especially medical identity theft, where thieves could use stolen records to obtain medical procedures under a victim’s name. Viewers are advised to contact the hospital to verify if their records were affected and to consider identity‑theft protection measures.

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Thank you, Christine. A possible data breach at a Boston hospital. St. Elizabeth's Medical Center now investigating how patient files ended up on the ground outside of an office complex in Charlestown. Here's Jared Holbrook.
Administrators at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center are investigating how confidential medical records were found miles away by a public street. A worker for Roadrunner Moving and Storage says he found them near a park next to the Shafter Building in Charlestown.. He says bundles of paperwork contained confidential patient information. He contacted the hospital and says a worker immediately responded to pick up the papers.
If you're a patient of this hospital, I would definitely contact them to find out if your records were some of those that have been compromised, and they should provide you some form of identity theft protection going forward.
Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert for McAfee. He says when this happens, patients are targets for bank and credit card fraud and medical identity theft.
Medical identity theft is when someone misappropriates your medical records and can actually use them to gain admission to a hospital to actually get procedures under your identity. And in this case, that can be the deadliest form of identity theft in case, uh, misinformation ends up on your medical records.
The Attorney General's Office is looking into the matter. Executives at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center are not commenting. But the company that owns them, Steward Health Care, sent us a written statement. A spokesperson says the patient information may have been mishandled by a vendor. End quote. We take our responsibility to safeguard information very seriously. We are aggressively working to determine the factual circumstances and any actions that may be required by Steward.
The real mystery to this issue is whether or not there were more boxes that had been lost or stolen that had been recovered by a thief. And it's that missing information that's most vulnerable. Jared Holbrook, Fox 25 News.