Health Information Management

Robber steals laptop containing HIV information

HIPAA Weekly Advisor, February 27, 2006

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A thief stole a laptop containing the HIV test results of almost 2,000 clients of the Sacramento, CA-based Centers for AIDS Research, Education and Services (CARES), reports The Sacramento Bee.

On February 10, the robber broke into the home of a CARES employee who had taken home the password-protected computer to finish a report. In addition to HIV information, it contained clients' names, ages, genders, races, and ZIP codes. The laptop did not store Social Security numbers or addresses. CARES allows employees to take sensitive data out of the workplace if it is on a password-protected computer, according to The Sacramento Bee.

CARES officials notified California authorities of the breach within a week of the theft and plan to strengthen the take-home policy to require encryption protection. There is no evidence that the thief has accessed or used the information.

Click here to read The Sacramento Bee article.



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