The laptop stolen from Premier Healthcare, a multispecialty physician group in Bloomington, Indiana, has been returned. The data apparently was never accessed.
That’s a big break for the practice, which somehow never encrypted the the hard drive of a laptop containing personal data of more than 205,000 people.
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Premier Healthcare disclosed this month that someone had stolen the computer in January from the billing department. The organization said the laptop contained e-mails with various “screenshots, spreadsheets and pdf documents that were used to address billing issues with patients, insurance companies and other healthcare providers”
These documents included mostly demographic information and some clinical records for 205,748 people. Less than 1,800 had their Social Security numbers and financial data at risk, but even one such leak can be a big problem.
Well, even though Premier updated its notice to patients on March 8, the practice waited until this week to say that someone returned the laptop in the mail “on or about” March 7, according to another update.
An information security consulting firm that Premier hired conducted a forensic investigation and found that the laptop hadn’t been powered on since the theft, the Premier statement said. Curiously, Premier now says that the computer “went missing on Dec. 31, 2015,” despite the earlier statement that the theft happened Jan. 4.
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We’ve placed a call to a Premier spokeswoman to explain the discrepancy. We will update the story if we get a response.
“Based on the forensic analysis and other circumstances of this case, there is no evidence that information on the computer was ever accessed causing a breach by any unauthorized third party. Premier continues to investigate the case and has reported this development to the Bloomington Police Department for use in their continuing investigation,” the organization said.
