4-year long HIPAA breach uncovered

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/four-year-long-hipaa-data-breach-discovered

By Erin McCann
Associate Editor
Healthcare IT News
January 2, 2014

In the world of HIPAA privacy and security breaches, 2013 was a big year, 
and the last days of December proved no exception.

The five-hospital Riverside Health System in southeast Virginia announced 
earlier this week that close to 1,000 of its patients are being notified 
of a privacy breach that continued for four years.

 From September 2009 through October 2013, a former Riverside employee 
inappropriately accessed the Social Security numbers and electronic 
medical records of 919 patients. Reportedly, the employee was a licensed 
practical nurse, according to a Daily Press account. The breach wasn't 
discovered until Nov. 1 following a random company audit.

"Riverside would like to apologize for this incident," said Riverside 
Spokesperson Peter Glagola, in a Dec. 29 notice. "We are truly sorry this 
happened. We have a robust compliance program and ongoing monitoring in 
place, and that's how we were able to identify this breach. We are looking 
at ways to improve our monitoring program with more automatic flags to 
protect our patients."

The practical nurse who inappropriately accessed the records has had their 
employment terminated, according to Riverside officials.

[...]



--
Subscribe to InfoSec News
http://www.infosecnews.org/subscribe-to-infosec-news/