Apria Healthcare, a provider in California, recently announced that it had suffered a major
data breach as a result of a laptop being stolen in Arizona.
The computer, which was taken from a locked car in Phoenix, contained records including patients' names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth and other protected health data, according to a report from
the company. The roughly 11,000 people affected by the incident are already being alerted to the problem.
The incident occurred on June 14, and was reported to law enforcement officials soon after, the report said. However, Apria notes that there is no indication the sensitive information contained on the computer has been either accessed or misused.
"However, Apria has nevertheless taken many steps necessary to address the incident and is committed to fully protecting all of our patients’ personal information," said Doreen Bellucci, Apria’s associate general counsel and privacy officer. "In addition, we have notified or are in the process of notifying the appropriate Federal and state regulatory agencies of the incident."
Ondrej Krehel, chief information security officer for
Identity Theft 911, has a blog about how
data breaches can affect consumers and organizations.
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