14 DAY TRIAL // It happened in the past and it happens again: a laptop containing information about approximately 2500 patients of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute based in Bethesda, Maryland, got stolen and nobody knows for sure if the thief intends to use the details or not. The data stored on the hard-drives includes names, birth date, hospital medical record number, diagnoses and MRI reports. However, no social security numbers, addresses, phone numbers and financial information are placed on the laptop, Elizabeth G. Nabel, NHLBI Director, said in a statement.
Although the information was unencrypted, the laptop was protected by a password so in case the thief wants to access the data, he has to deal with this, apparently weak, security measure first. As expected, the Montgomery County police officers are already investigating the case but I highly doubt they can recover the stolen info.
"We want to assure the participants in this and every other NHLBI study that we are taking several steps to increase data security and ensure that similar incidents do not occur in the future. Furthermore, we want to clarify that our partner in this particular study, Suburban Hospital, is not in any way responsible for this breach of confidentiality. The incident concerns NHLBI-conducted research and is totally unrelated to Suburban Hospital's outstanding medical care," Elizabeth Nabel added in the statement published on the official NHLBI page.
As mentioned in the first paragraph, this is not the first time when a laptop used by an official gets stolen and the information of thousands of people fells in criminal hands. And the solution seems more than obvious: better security measures, including here encryption solutions, stronger passwords and extra-care when working with so important information?