Stolen NIH Laptop Contains Patient Data
A National Institutes of Health laptop with sensitive patient data on it was stolen in February. The data was not encrypted and the breach not reported for over a month when NIH officials finally tried to contact affected patients.
Earlier this week, a government laptop was stolen from the locked trunk of a National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute(NHLBI) official. The laptop contained the sensitive data of 2,500 patients who were participants in a National Institutes of Health study.
The data was not encrypted, a violation of government data security policy. While there were no social security numbers, telephone numbers, addresses or financial information in the data, there was "personally identifiable information" such as name and age linked to clinical data.
The Washington Post reported that Elizabeth Nabel, director of the NHLBI, issued a statement in response to the news:
"When volunteers enroll in a clinical study, they place great trust in the researchers and study staff, expecting them to act both responsibly and ethically. We deeply regret that this incident may cause those who have participated in one of our studies to feel that we have violated that trust."
