Vassar Brothers Medical Center Patients’ Data Exposed

Over 250,000 Vassar Brothers Medical Center patients’ personal information was stored in a stolen laptop.

The laptop computer was taken from the emergency department sometime between June 23 and June 26, according to a letter sent to patients and obtained by the Journal. It was used to register ER patients. The letter was dated July 17. It said the computer was password protected and that there is “no evidence that the hard drive has been inappropriately accessed.”

According to the letter, the computer contained patients’ names, date of birth, sex, telephone number and Social Security number.

Anyone affected by this breach is encouraged to contact at least one of the major credit bureaus and place a fraud alert on their files.

Update (08/06/06): Copies of the notifications letters are found here:
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Source: PoughkeepsieJournal.com

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Written by MCruz on August 2nd, 2006 with 4 comments.
Read more articles on Hospitals and Identity Theft and Patients.

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4 comments

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Asgar
#1. August 4th, 2006, at 1:14 PM.

This an outrage! They should be paying for my credit monitoring fees.

Mention from Numbrx.net
#2. August 19th, 2006, at 9:47 AM.

Vassar Brothers MC Sends Follow Up Letters - numbrX Security Beat: Vassar Brothers Medical Center has sent out a follow up letter to help patients whose personal data was on ...

willow
#3. August 21st, 2006, at 5:33 PM.

Call one of the credit reporting agencies to have a fraud alert placed on your record (toll-free number, free to place a fraud alert, the agency you contact will contact the other two for you). Within 90 days of placing fraud alert on your record, request a free copy of your credit report from each of the three credit reporting agencies (again, all free). If you’re going to argue that time is money, then whine about how Vassar should pay you for the ten minutes it takes to accomplish these things. Outrage…whatever.

Raptoredor
#4. September 13th, 2006, at 9:42 PM.

I got this letter… but then today I got a letter from the “Secretary of Vet Benefits and Affairs”. Same deal a stolen laptop yada yada yada. Beginning to believe this is yet another of the scams somehow that run rampant these days. Fortunately if anyone were to steal my ID they’d give it back. I screwed my credit up long before the internet was ever even dreamed of so I don’t get too worked up over these things. They probably do it to verify there’s a real person. Lets face it, anytime anything is done with a credit report, checking it etc it becomes a matter of record. Maybe the bastards just want you to react so they know they are on to something!

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