Health Information Management

Pfizer's third security breach occurs as former employee steals 34,000 records

HIPAA Weekly Advisor, September 10, 2007

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For the third time in recent months, the pharmaceutical company Pfizer is reporting a security breach. This time around, a former employee is responsible for stealing confidential information from the company's computer system, according to a letter to the New Hampshire attorney general. The breach resulted in compromised data for 34,000 employees, former employees, healthcare professionals and other individuals, according to the letter, which also notes that the exposed information included names, Social Security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, bank account and credit card numbers, birthdates and driver license numbers.

The company is offering credit monitoring for those affected by the breach and claims that there is no evidence that the data has been misused as of August 23, when the letter to the attorney general was written.

Earlier this year, Pfizer experienced two other breaches when two laptops were stolen from an employee's car and another employee's spouse illegally downloaded information from the company compromising the security of 17,000 employees.

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