OT: Stolen medical data

[Kevin Brown]

> My husband just found out today that several laptop computers 
> containing medical data, including social security numbers, were 
> stolen from his doctor's office. His data was on the stolen 
> computers. The laptops belonged to the company that manufactured his 
> hip implant. Company reps were at the doctor's office reviewing, and 
> apparently collecting, patient data.
> 
> I am really steamed. What kind of idiots put sensitive data on easily 
> stolen computers? Everybody, it seems. I have to call them tomorrow 
> and try to find out if the data was encrypted. It probably wasn't. 

The kind that need to be able to access the data from places other than 
sitting behind their desks.  My cousin is a doctor and they are 
utilizing tablet PCs for data entry and retrieval while talking with 
patients.  This allows them to be able to fill out forms once and then 
have them synced up to the server.  Reduces paper used in the office and 
makes things easier on the staff to retrieve.

> In compensation, they gave him a free year with a credit monitoring / 
> ID-theft prevention service, but we're not satisfied. We're always 
> told to safeguard our SS#, but every Tom, Dick and Harry insists on 
> having it, and then they give it away to strangers and fail to 
> protect it! Is there anything we can do to try to protect him, and to 
> punish these idiots?

They insist on it because it is a "unique" identifier that even Uncle 
Sam recognizes as being "you".  IIRC, it used to be illegal for anyone 
other than HR at your current employer to have that number, but it 
slowly got used for other things by the government and then in the 
private sector.